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rations  / 

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Ca  doeumant  ast  film*  au  taux  da  rMuetion  indiqiM  ci-daasoua. 


lOx 


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eonformit*  avec  les  conditions  du  contret  de 
filmaga. 

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d'impression  ou  d'illustretion  et  en  terminant  par 
la  derni*re  pege  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

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ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


ABBAHAM  LINCOLN  EDITION 


VOLUME  S 
THE  CHRONICLES 
OF  AMERICA  SERIES 
ALLEN  JOHNSON 
EDITOR 

GEBHARD  B.  LOMEB 

CHARLFS  W.  JEFFERY9 
ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


1 


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• :   1.  i  A    <.()\\     It  !'  <  )r  A, 

jil'.MHl!  (<KV  V  ,  Li  own 
^  ,  ■   (  N  iV  K  J:-  :  i  ■.    I'll  KSS 


ELIZABEl  ^AN  SEA-DOGS 

A  CHRONICLE  OF  DRAKE  AND 
HIS  COMPANIONS 
BY  WILLIAM  WOOD 


NEW  HAVEN:  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PBESS 
TORONTO:  GLASGOW.  BROOK  &  CO. 
LONDON:  HUMPHBET  MILFOBD 
OXFOBD  UNIVEBSITT  PBESS 

1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by  Yale  University  Press 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

Citizen,  colonist,  pioneer!    These  three  words 
carry  the  history  of  the  United  States  back  to  its 
earliest  form  in  'the  Newe  Worlde  called  America.' 
But  who  prepared  the  way  for  the  pioneers  from 
the  Old  World  and  what  ensured  their  safety  in 
the  New?   The  title  of  the  present  volume,  Eliza- 
bethan Sea-Dogs,  gives  the  only  answer.  It  was 
during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  last  of  the  Tudor 
sovereigns  of  England,  that  Englishmen  won  the 
command  of  the  sea  under  the  consummate  leader- 
ship of  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  first  of  modem 
admirals.   Drake  and  his  companions  are  known 
to  fame  as  Sea-Dogs.    They  won  the  English  right 
of  way  into  Spain's  New  World.   And  Anglo- 
American  history  begins  with  that  century  of 
maritime  adventure  and  naval  war  in  which 
English  sailors  blazed  and  secured  the  long  sea- 
trail  for  the  men  of  every  other  kind  who  found  or 
sought  their  fortunes  in  America. 


vu 


CONTENTS 

L  ENGLAND'S  FIRST  LOOK                       Pkg*  i 

IL  HENBY  VIIL  KING  OP  THE  ENGLISH  SEA  "  18 

in.  LIFE  AFLOAT  IN  TUDOR  TIMES               "  33 

IV.   ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND                          "  43 

V.  HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS    "  71 

VL  DRAKE'S  BEGINNING                               "  95 

Vn.  DRAKE  S  •  EXCOMPASSMENT  OP  ALL  THE 

WORLDE' 

VIII.   DRAKE  CLIPS  THE  WINGS  OP  SPAIN  "  149 

DC  DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  "  172 

X.  'THE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-THREE*  "  192 

XL  RALEIGH  AND  THE  VISION  OF  THE  WEST  "  20S 
XIL  DRAKE'S  END  ggg 

NOTE  ON  TUDOR  SHIPPING  "  231 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  "  241 
INDEX 


ix 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE 

PaiDt..ig,  probably  by  Abraham  Jansaen,  1M4. 

At  Duckland  Abbey,  Devon,  England.  Frontitpuet 

MAP  SHOWING  THE  FIELD  OF  ACTIVITY 
OF  THE  SEA-ROVERS 

Prepared  by  W.  L.  G.  Joergt  of  the  Amerioaa 

Geographical  Society.  Faeingpage  18 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH 

Painting  attributed  to  Federigo  Zucchero.  In 

the  National  PortnutGalkty.  London.  En^uid.     "     "  6i 

SIR  JOHN  HAWKINS 

Engraving  in  Holland's  Heroologia  Anglica, 
publiabed  at  Amheim,  1620.  In  the  New  York 
PuUicIdbniy.  "     «  74 

SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH,  ABOUT  THIRTY- 
FOUR  YEARS  OF  AGE 
Painting  attributed  to  Federigo  Zuccbero.  In 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery.  London.  En^and.    "      "  m 


EUZABETHAN  S£A-DOGS 


CHAPTER  I 

England's  first  look 

In  the  early  spring  of  1476  the  Italian  Giovanni 
Cabotot  who,  like  Christopher  Columbus,  was  a 
seafaring  citizen  of  Genoa,  transfmed  hia  aU^- 

ance  to  Venice. 

The  Roman  Empire  had  fallen  a  thousand  years 
before.  Rome  now  held  temporal  sway  only 
over  the  States  of  the  Chm-ch,  which  were  weak 
in  armed  force,  even  when  compared  with  the 
small  republics,  dukedoms,  and  principalities 
which  lay  north  and  south.  But  Papal  Rome, 
as  the  head  and  heart  of  a  spiritual  empire,  was 
still  a  world-power;  and  the  disunited  Italian 
states  were  first  in  the  commercial  enterprise  of 
the  age  as  well  as  in  the  glories  of  the  Renaissance. 
North  of  the  Papal  domain,  which  cut  the  penin- 

1 


f  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

■uU  in  two  parts,  stood  three  renowned  Italian 
dtia:  Florence,  the  capital  of  Tuscany,  leading 
the  worid  in  arta;  Genoa,  the  home  of  Caboto 
and  Columbus,  teaching  the  worid  the  science  of 
navigation:  and  Venice,  mistress  of  the  great 
trade  route  between  Europe  and  Asia,  controlling 
the  world's  commerce. 

Thus,  in  becoming  a  citizen  of  Venice,  Giovanni 
Caboto  the  Genoese  was  leaving  the  best  home 
of  scientific  navigation  for  the  best  home  of  sea- 
borne trade.  His  very  name  was  no  bad  creden- 
tial. Surnames  often  come  from  nicknames; 
and  for  a  Genoese  to  be  called  //  Caboto  was  as 
much  as  for  an  Arab  of  the  Desert  to  be  known 
to  his  people  as  The  Horseman.  CaboUdggio 
now  means  no  more  than  coasting  trade.  But 
before  there  was  any  real  ocean  commerce  it 
referred  to  the  regular  sea-borne  trade  of  the 
time;  and  Giovanni  Caboto  must  have  either 
upheld  an  exceptional  family  tt  edition  or  struck 
out  an  exceptional  line  for  himself  to  have  been 
known  as  John  the  Skipper  among  the  many  other 
expert  skippers  hailing  from  the  port  of  Genoa. 

There  was  nothing  strange  in  his  being  natur- 
alised in  Venice.  Patriotism  of  the  kind  that 
keeps  the  citizen  under  the  flag  of  his  own  country 


ENGLAND'S  FIRST  LOOK  8 

was  hardly  known  outside  of  England,  Prance, 
and  Spain.  Though  the  Italian  states  used  to 
fight  each  other,  an  individual  Italian,  espedally 
when  he  v.os  a  sailor,  always  felt  at  liberty  to 
seek  his  fortune  in  any  one  of  them,  or  wherever  he 
found  his  chance  most  tempting.  So  the  Genoese 
Giovanni  became  the  Venetian  Zuan  without  any 
patriotic  wrench.  Nor  was  even  the  vastly 
greater  change  to  plain  John  Cabot  so  very  start- 
ling. Italian  experts  entered  the  service  of  a 
foreign  monarch  as  easily  as  did  the  'pay-fighting 
Swiss'  or  Hessian  mercenaries.  Cdumbus  en- 
tered the  Spanish  service  under  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  just  as  Cabot  entered  the  English  service 
under  Henry  VU.  Giovanni— Zuan— John:  it 
was  all  in  a  good  day's  work. 

Cabot  settled  in  Bristol,  where  the  stfll  costing 
guild  of  Merchant- Venturers  was  even  then  two 
centuries  old.  Columbus,  writing  of  his  visit 
to  Iceland,  says,  'the  English,  especially  those  oj 
Bristol,  go  there  with  their  merchandise.'  Iceland 
was  then  what  Newfoundland  became,  the  best 
of  distant  fishing  grounds.  It  marked  one  end  of 
the  line  of  English  sea-borne  commerce.  The 
Levant  marked  the  other.  The  Baltic  formed 
an  important  branch.    Thus  English  trade  al- 


4  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


ready  stre.ched  out  over  all  the  main  lines.  Long 
before  Cabot's  arrival  a  merchant  prince  of 
Bristol,  named  Canyng,  who  employed  a  hundred 
artificers  and  eight  hundred  seamen,  was  trading 
to  Iceland,  to  the  Baltic,  and,  most  of  all,  to  the 
Mediterranean.  The  trade  with  Italian  ports 
■tood  in  high  favor  among  English  merchants 
and  was  encouraged  by  the  King;  for  in  1485, 
the  first  year  of  the  Tudor  dynasty,  an  En^ish 
consul  took  office  at  Fisa  and  En^and  made  a 
treaty  of  reciprocity  with  Tuscany. 

Henry  VII,  first  of  the  energetic  Tudors  and 
grandfather  oi  Queen  Elusabeth,  was  a  thrifty 
and  practical  man.  Some  years  before  the  event 
about  to  be  recorded  in  these  pages  Columbus 
had  sent  him  a  trusted  brother  with  maps,  globes, 
and  quotations  from  Plato  to  prove  the  existence 
of  lands  to  the  west.  Henry  had  troubles  of  his 
own  in  England.  So  he  turned  a  deaf  ear  and 
lost  a  New  World.  But  after  Columbus  had 
found  America,  and  the  Pope  had  divided  all 
heathen  countries  between  the  crowns  of  Spain  and 
Portugal,  Henry  decided  to  see  what  he  could  do. 

Anglo-American  history  begins  on  the  5th  of 
March,  1496,  when  the  Cabots,  fathor  and  three 


ENGLAND'S  FffiST  LOOK  5 

sons,  reodved  the  following  pai^t  from  the 

King: 

Ilenrie,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  England 
and  France,  and  Lord  of  Irelande,  to  all,  to  whom 
these  presenter  shall  come.  Greeting  —  Be  ii  knowen, 
that  We  have  given  and  granted,  and  by  these  preaentea 
do  give  and  grant  for  Us  and  Our  Heyrea,  to  our 
vmU  beloved  John  QahoUt  citizen  qf  Venieet  to  Lewee, 
Sebagtiatit  and  SanHue,  eonnea  of  tke  aayde  Jokut 
and  to  tke  heirea  qf  them  and  every  qf  thevtt  and 
their  depuHea,  full  and  free  aii<Amft0,  Iniw,  and 
Power  t  to  aayle  to  all  Partee,  Counireya,  and  Seas, 
of  the  f'^aat^  qf  the  West,  and  qf  the  North,  under 
our  bannera  and  enaignea,  with  fke  ahippeat  qf 
what  burden  or  qttanHiie  aoever  they  bee:  and  a» 
many  mariners  or  men  aa  they  wHl  have  vnth  them 
in  the  saide  shippes,  upon  their  owne  proper  costea 
and  charges,  to  seeke  out,  discover,  andjinde,  what- 
soever lies,  Counireyes,  Regions,  or  Provinces,  of 
the  Heathennes  and  Infidelles,  whatsoever  they  bee, 
and  in  what  part  of  the  worlde  soever  they  bee,  whiche 
oefc.  e  this  time  have  been  unknowen  to  all  Christiana. 
We  hat.'  granted  to  them  also,  and  to  every  of  them, 
the  h-  .res  of  them,  and  e-erp  of  them,  and  their 
deputieii,  and  have  given  them  licence  to  set  uv  Our 
bannera  and  ensignea  in  every  village,  towne,  caatel. 


""iTiiilTT-rri 


6  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

yle,  or  maine  lande,  of  them  newly  founde.  And 
that  the  aforcsaide  John  and  his  sonnes,  or  their 
heires  and  assignes,  may  subdue,  occupie,  and 
possesse,  all  such  totvnes,  cities,  castels,  and  yles,  of 
them  founde,  which  they  can  subdue,  occupie,  and 
possesse,  as  our  vassailes  and  lieutenantes,  getting 
unto  Us  the  rule,  title,  and  jurisdiction  of  the  same 
viUages,  toumes,  castels,  andjirme  lande  so  founde. 

The  patent  then  goes  on  to  provide  for  a  royalty 
to  His  Majesty  of  one-fifth  of  the  net  profits,  to 
racempt  the  patentees  from  custom  duty,  to  ex- 
clude competition,  and  to  exhort  good  subjects  of 
the  Crown  to  help  the  Cabots  in  every  possible 
way.  This  first  of  all  English  documents  con- 
nected with  America  ends  with  these  words: 
Wiinesse  our  Selfe  at  Westminster,  the  Fifth  day  of 
March,  in  the  XI  yeere  of  our  reigne,  HENRY  R. 

To  saij^r  to  all  Partes  of  the  East,  of  the  West, 
and  of  the  North.  The  pointed  omission  of  the 
word  South  made  it  clear  that  Henry  had  no  in- 
tention of  infringing  Spanish  rights  of  discovery. 
Spanish  clain^,  however,  were  based  on  the  Pope's 
division  of  all  the  heathen  world  and  were  by  no 
means  bounded  by  any  rights  of  discovery  already 
acquired. 


ENGLAND'S  FIRST  LOOK  7 

Cabot  left  Bristol  in  the  spring  of  1497,  a  year 
after  the  date  of  his  patent,  not  with  the  'five 
shippes'  the  King  had  authorized,  but  in  the 
little  Matthew,  with  a  crew  of  only  eighteen  men, 
nearly  all  Englishmen  accustomed  to  the  North 
Atlantic.  The  Matthew  made  Cape  Breton,  the 
easternmost  point  of  Nova  Scotia,  on  the  24th  of 
June,  the  anniversary  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
now  the  racial  fete-day  of  the  French  Canadians. 
Not  a  single  human  inhabitant  was  to  be  seen  in 
this  wild  new  land,  shaggy  with  forests  primeval, 
fronted  with  bold,  scarped  shores,  and  beautiful 
with  romantic  deep  bays  leading  inland*  league 
upon  league,  past  rugged  fordiands  and  rocky 
battlements  keeping  guard  at  the  frontiers  of 
the  continent.  Over  these  mysterious  wilds 
Cabot  raised  St.  George's  Cross  for  England  and 
the  banner  of  St.  Mark  in  souvenir  of  Venice. 
Had  he  now  reached  the  fabled  islands  of  the  West 
or  discovered  other  islands  oflF  the  eastern  coast 
of  Tartary?  He  did  not  know.  But  he  hurried 
back  to  Bristol  with  the  news  and  was  welcomed 
by  the  King  and  people.  A  Venetian  in  London 
wrote  home  to  say  that  'this  fellow-citizen  of 
ours,  who  went  from  Bristol  in  quest  of  new  islands, 
is  Zuan  Caboto,  whom  the  English  now  call  a 


8  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

great  admiral.  He  dresses  in  silk;  they  pay 
him  great  honour;  and  everyone  runs  after  him 
like  mad.'  The  Spanish  ambassador  was  full 
of  suspicion,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Cabot  had 
not  gone  south.  Had  not  His  Holiness  divided 
all  Heathendom  between  the  crowns  of  Spain  and 
Portugal,  to  Spain  the  West  and  to  Portugal  the 
East;  and  was  not  this  landfaii  within  what  the 
modem  world  would  call  the  Spanish  sphere  of 
influence?  The  ambassador  protested  to  Henry 
Vn  and  reported  home  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

Henry  VII  meanwhile  sent  a  little  prraent  *To 
Hym  that  founde  the  new  Isle--£lO.*  It  was 
not  very  much.  But  it  was  about  as  much  as 
nearly  a  thousand  dollars  now;  and  it  meant 
full  recognition  and  approval.  This  was  a  good 
start  for  a  man  who  couldn't  pay  the  Kong  any 
royalty  of  twenty  per  cent,  because  he  hadn't 
made  a  penny  on  the  way.  Besides,  it  was  fol- 
lowed up  by  a  royal  annuity-  of  twice  the  amount 
and  by  renewed  letters-patent  for  further  voyages 
and  discoveries  in  the  west.  So  Cabot  took  good 
fortune  at  the  flood  and  went  again. 

This  time  there  was  the  full  authorized  flotilla 
of  five  sail,  of  which  one  turned  hick  and  four 
sailed  on.    Somewhere  on  the  way  John  Cabot 


ENGLAND'S  FIRST  LOOK  9 

disappeared  from  history  and  his  second  son, 
Sebastian,  reigned  in  his  stead.  Sebastian,  like 
John,  apparently  wrote  nothing  whatever.  But 
he  talked  a  great  deal;  and  in  after  years  he  seems 
to  have  remembered  a  goo>i  many  things  that 
never  happened  at  all.  Nevertheless  he  was  a 
very  able  man  in  several  capacities  and  could  teach 
a  courtier  or  a  demagogue,  as  well  as  a  geographer 
or  exploiter  of  new  claims,  the  art  of  climbing 
over  other  people's  backs,  his  father's  and  his 
brothers'  backs  included.  He  had  his  troubles; 
for  King  Henry  had  pressed  upon  him  recruits 
from  the  gaols,  which  just  then  were  full  of  rebels. 
But  he  had  enough  seamen  to  manage  the  ships 
and  plenty  of  cargo  for  trade  with  the  undiscovered 
natives. 

Sebastian  perhaps  left  some  of  his  three  hundred 
mai  to  explore  Newfoundland.  He  knew  they 
couldn't  starve  because,  as  he  often  used  to  tell 
his  gaping  listeners,  the  waters  thereabouts  were 
so  thick  with  codfish  that  he  had  hard  work  to 
force  his  vessels  through.  This  first  of  American 
fish  stories,  wildly  improbable  as  it  may  seem, 
may  yet  have  been  founded  on  fact.  When  acres 
upon  acres  of  the  countless  little  capelin  swim 
inshore  to  feed,  and  they  themselves  are  preyed 


10  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

on  by  leaping  acres  of  voracious  cod,  whose  own 
rear  ranks  are  being  preyed  on  by  hungry  seals, 
sharks,  herring-hogs,  or  dogfish,  then  indeed  the 
troubled  surface  of  a  narrowing  bay  is  literally 
thick  with  the  silvery  flash  of  capelin,  the  dark 
tumultuous  backs  of  cod,  and  the  swirling  rushes 
of  the  greater  beasts  of  prey  behind.  Nor  were 
certain  other  fish  stories,  told  by  Sebastian  and 
his  successors  about  the  land  of  cod,  without  some 
strange  truths  to  build  on.  Cod  have  been  caught 
as  long  88  a  man  and  wdghing  over  a  hundred 
pounds.  A  whole  haxe,  a  big  guillemot  with  his 
beak  and  daws,  a  brace  of  duck  so  fresh  that 
they  must  have  been  swallowed  alive,  a  rubber 
wading  boot,  and  a  very  learned  treatise  com- 
plete in  three  volumes — these  are  a  few  of  the 
curiosities  actually  found  in  sundry  stomachs  of 
the  all-devouring  cod. 

The  new-found  cod  banks  were  a  mine  of  wealth 
for  waste  i  Europe  at  a  time  when  everyone  ate 
fish  on  last  days.  They  have  remained  so  ever 
since  because  the  enormous  increase  of  popula- 
tion has  kept  up  a  constantly  increasing  demand 
for  natural  supplies  of  food.  Basques  and  Eng- 
lish, Spaniards,  French,  and  Portuguese,  were 
presently  fishing  for  cod  all  round  the  waters  of 


ENGLAND'S  FffiST  LOOK  11 

northeastern  North  America  and  were  even  then 
beginning  to  raise  questions  of  national  rights  that 
have  only  been  settled  in  this  twentieth  centuiy 
after  four  hundred  years. 

Following  the  coast  of  Greenland  past  Cape 
Farewell,  Sebastian  Cabot  turned  north  to  look  for 
the  nearest  course  to  India  and  Cathay,  the  lands 
of  silks  and  spices,  diamonds,  rubies,  pearls,  and 
gold.  John  Cabot  had  once  been  as  far  as  Mecca 
or  its  neighborhood,  where  he  had  seen  the  cara- 
vans that  came  across  the  Desert  of  Arabia  from 
the  fabled  East.  Believing  the  proof  that  the 
world  was  round,  he,  like  Columbus  and  so  many 
more,  thought  America  was  either  the  eastern 
limits  of  the  Old  World  or  an  archipelago  between 
the  extremest  east  and  west  already  known.  Thus, 
in  the  early  days  before  it  was  valued  for  itself, 
America  was  commonly  regarded  as  a  mere  ob- 
struction to  navigation  —  the  more  solid  the 
more  exasperating.  Now,  in  1498,  on  his  second 
voyage  to  America,  John  Cabot  must  have  been 
particularly  anxious  to  get  through  and  show  the 
King  some  better  return  for  his  money.  But  he 
simply  disappears;  and  all  we  know  is  what 
various  writers  gleaned  from  his  son  Sebastian 
later  on. 


12  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Sebastian  said  he  coasted  Greenland,  through 
vast  quantities  of  midsui  mer  ice,  until  he  reached 
67°  30'  north,  where  there  was  hardly  any  night. 
Then  he  turned  back  and  probably  steered  a 
southerly  course  for  Newfoundland,  as  he  appears 
to  have  rompletely  missed  what  would  have 
seemed  to  him  the  tempting  way  to  Asia  offered  by 
Hudson  Strait  and  Bay.  Passing  Newfoundland, 
he  stood  on  south  as  far  as  the  Virginia  capes, 
perhaps  down  as  far  as  Florida.  A  few  natives 
were  caught.  But  no  real  trade  was  done.  And 
when  the  explorers  had  reported  progress  to  the 
King  the  general  opinion  was  that  North  America 
was  nothing  to  boast  of,  after  all. 

A  generation  later  the  French  sent  out  several 
expeditions  to  sail  through  North  America  and 
make  discoveries  by  the  way.  Jacques  Cartier's 
second,  made  in  1535,  was  the  greatest  and  most 
successful.  He  went  up  the  St.  Lawrence  as  high 
as  the  site  of  Montreal,  the  head  of  ocean  naviga- 
tiou,  where,  a  hundred  and  forty  years  later,  the 
local  wits  called  La  Salle's  seigneury  *La  Chine' 
in, derision  of  his  unquenchable  belief  in  a  trans- 
continental connection  with  Cathay. 

But  that  was  under  the  wholly  new  conditions 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  both  French 


V 


ENGLAND'S  FIRST  LOOK  is 

and  English  expected  to  make  lomething  out  <^ 

what  are  now  the  United  States  and  Canada. 
The  point  of  the  witling  joke  against  La  Salle 
was  a  new  version  of  the  old  adage:  Go  farther 
and  fare  worse.    The  point  of  European  opinion 
about  America  throughout  the  wonderful  sixteenth 
century  was  that  those  who  did  go  farther  north 
than  Mexico  were  certain  to  fare  worse.  And 
—  whatever  the  cause  —  they  generally  did.  So 
there  was  yet  a  third  reason  why  the  fame  of 
Columbus  eclipsed  the  fame  of  the  Cabots  even 
among  those  English-speaking  peoples  whose 
New-World  home  the  Cabots  were  the  first  to 
find.   To  begin  with,  Columbus  was  the  first  of 
modems  to  discover  any  spot  in  all  America. 
Secondly,  while  the  Cabots  gave  no  writings  to 
the  world,  Columbus  did.   He  wrote  for  a  mighty 
monarch  and  his  fame  was  spread  abroad  by  what 
we  should  now  call  a  monster  publicity  campaign. 
Thirdly,  our  present  point:  the  southern  lands 
associated  with  Columbus  and  with  Spain  yielded 
immense  and  most  romantic  profits  during  the 
most  romantic  period  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  northern  lands  connected  with  the  Cabots 
did  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Priority,  publicity,  and  romantic  wealth  all 


14  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

favored  Columbus  and  the  south  then  as  the 
memory  of  them  does  to-day.  The  four  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  his  discovery  of  an  island 
in  the  Bahamas  excited  the  interest  of  the  whole 
world  and  was  celebrated  with  great  enthusiasm 
in  the  United  States.  The  four  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  Cabots'  di«»covery  of  North  America 
excited  no  interest  at  all  outside  of  Bristol  and 
Cape  Breton  and  a  few  learned  societies.  Even 
contemporary  Spain  did  more  for  the  Cabots 
than  that.  The  Spanish  ambassador  in  London 
carefully  collected  every  scrap  ci  information 
and  sent  it  home  to  his  king,  who  turned  it  over 
as  material  for  Juan  de  la  Cosa's  famous  mi^), 
the  first  dated  map  of  America  known.  This  map, 
made  in  1500  on  a  bullock's  hide,  still  occupies  a 
place  of  honor  in  the  Naval  Musetmi  at  Madrid; 
and  there  it  stands  as  a  contemporary  geographic 
record  to  show  that  St.  Geortje's  Cross  was  the 
first  flag  ever  raised  over  eastern  North  America, 
at  all  events  north  of  Cape  Hatteras. 

The  Cabots  did  great  things  though  they  were 
not  great  men.  John,  as  we  have  seen  already, 
sailed  out  of  the  ken  of  man  in  1498  during  his 
secdnd  voyage.  Sly  Sebastian  lived  on  and  al- 
most saw  Elizabeth  ascend  the  throne  in  1558. 


ENGLAND'S  FIRST  LOOK  15 

He  had  made  many  voyages  and  served  many 
masters  in  the  meantime.    In  1512  he  entered 
the  service  of  King  Ferdinand  of  Spain  as  a 
'Captain  of  the  Sea*  with  a  handsome  salary 
attached.   Six  years  later  the  Emperor  Charles  V 
made  him  'Chief  Pilot  and  Examiner  of  Pilots.* 
Another  six  years  and  he  is  sitting  as  a  nautical 
assessor  to  find  out  the  longitude  of  the  Moluccas 
in  order  that  the  Pope  may  know  whether  they 
fall  within  the  Portuguese  or  Spanish  hemisphere 
of  exploitation.   Presently  he  goes  on  a  four 
years*  journey  to  South  A'    ica,  is  hindered  by 
a  mutiny,  explores  the  R       Plate  (La  PlaU), 
and  returns  in  1530,  about  the  time  of  the  voyage 
to  Brazil  of  'Master  William  Haukins,'  of  which 
we  shall  hear  later  on. 

In  1544  Sebastian  made  an  excellent  and  cele- 
brated map  of  the  world  which  gives  a  wonderfully 
good  idea  of  the  coasts  of  North  America  from 
Labrador  to  Florida.  This  map,  long  given  up 
for  lost,  and  only  discovereo  three  centuries  after 
it  had  been  finished,  is  now  in  the  National 
Library  in  Paris.  * 

•  \b  excellent  facsimile  reproduction  of  it,  togetlwr  with  a  copy 
of  the  marginal  text,  is  in  the  oollectiona  of  the  Americu  Geo- 
graphical  Society  ot  New  York. 


16  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


Sebastian  had  passed  his  threescore  years  and 
ten  before  this  famous  map  appeared.  But  he 
was  as  active  as  ever  twelve  years  'ater  again. 
He  had  left  Spain  for  England  in  1548,  to  the  rage 
of  Charies  V,  who  claimed  him  as  a  deserter,  which 
he  probably  was.  But  the  English  boy-Idng, 
Edward  VI,  gave  him  a  pension,  which  was  re- 
newed by  Queen  Mary;  and  his  last  ten  yean 
were  spent  in  England,  where  he  died  in  the  odor 
of  sanctity  as  Governor  of  the  Muscovy  Company 
and  citizen  of  London.  Whatever  his  faults,  he 
was  a  hearty-good-fellow  with  his  boon  com- 
panions; and  the  following  'personal  mention' 
about  bis  octogenarian  revels  at  Gravesend  is 
well  worth  quoting  exactly  as  the  admiring  diarist 
wrote  it  down  on  the  27th  of  April,  1556,  when 
the  pinnace  Serchthrift  was  on  the  point  of  sailing 
to  Muscovy  and  the  Directors  were  giving  it  a 
great  send-off. 

After  Master  Cabota  and  divers  gentlemen  and 
gentlewomen  had  viewed  our  pinnace,  and  tasted  of 
such  cheer  as  we  could  make  them  aboard,  they  went 
on  shore,  giving  to  our  mariners  right  liberal  rewards; 
and  the  good  old  Gentleman,  Master  Cabota,  gave  to 
the  poor  most  liberal  alms,  wishing  them  to  pray  for 
the  good  fortime  and  prosperous  success  of  the  Serchr 
thrift,  our  pinnace.  And  then,  at  the  ngn  oi  the  Chris- 


ENGLAND'S  FIRST  LOOK  17 


topher,  he  and  his  friends  banqueted,  and  made  me 
and  them  that  were  in  the  company  great  cheer;  and 
for  my  fay  that  he  had  to  aee  the  towardncM  of  our 
intended  discovery  he  entered  into  the  danoe  himadf* 

amongst  the  rest  of  the  young  and  lusty  company — 
which  being  ended,  he  and  his  friends  departed,  most 
gently  commendiiy  us  to  the  governance  of  Ahnighty 
God 


CHAPTER  n 

BXNBT  Vm,  KIMQ  OF  TBS  BNOLUB 

The  leading  piomtTS  in  the  Age  of  Discovery 
were  sons  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal. '  Cabot, 
as  we  have  se^n,  was  an  Italian,  though  he 
safled  for  the  English  Crown  and  had  an  Eng- 
lish crew.  Columbus,  too,  was  an  Italian,  though 
in  the  service  of  the  Spanish  Crown.  It  was  the 
Portuguese  Vasco  da  Gama  who  in  the  very 
year  of  John  Cabot's  second  voyage  (1408)  found 
the  great  sea  route  to  India  by  way  uf  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope.  Two  years  later  the  Cortereab, 
also  Portuguese,  began  exploring  the  coasts  of 
America  as  far  northwest  as  Labrador.  Twenty 
years  later  again  the  Portuguese  Magellan,  sailing 
for  the  King  of  Spain,  discovered  the  strait  still 
known  by  his  name,  passed  through  it  into  the 

'  Buque  fislier:i^'-n  and  whalers  apparently  forestalls  d  JacquM 
Cartier'a  discovery  of  the  St.  Luwrence  in  1535;  perhaps  they  knew 
the  mainland  of  America  before  John  Cabot  in  1407.  But  they 
left  no  written  records;  and  neither  founded  an  ovenea  HAminwtn 
nor  gave  ri^ta  of  diacovery  to  their  own  or  any  other  laoe. 

18 


MA>'  SHOWING 
THE  FIF4J)  OF  ACTIVITY 

OF  THE 


MJiMETHANSEArROnilfa        UfV'  V  ■  ^'^^T 


JUliu*  •itN  inn  H  V. 


•llW*a-^Ji  "it'iiifi''"Vi- 


KING  HENBY  Vm  19 

Pacific,  and  reached  the  Philippines.  There  he 
was  killed.  But  one  of  his  ships  went  on  to  make 
the  first  circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  a  feat  -hich 
redounded  to  the  glory  of  both  Spain  and  Portugal. 
Meanwhile,  in  1513,  the  Spaniaiv  Balboa  had 
crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  waded  into 
the  Pacific,  sword  in  hand,  *  d  claim  it  for  the  king. 
Then  came  the  Spanish  explorers  —  Ponce  de 
Leon,  De  Soto,  Coronado,  and  many  more  — 
and  later  on  the  conquerors  and  founders  of  New 
Spain  —  Cortes,  Pizarro,  and  their  successors. 

During  all  this  time  neither  France  nor  England 
made  any  lodgment  in  America,  though  both  sent 
out  a  number  of  expeditions,  both  fished  on  the 
cod  banks  of  Newfoundland,  and  each  had  ah-eady 
marked  out  her  own  'sphere  of  influence.*  The 
Portuguese  were  in  Brazil;  the  Spaniards,  in 
South  and  Central  America.  England,  by  right 
of  the  Bristol  voyages,  claimed  the  eastern  coasts 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada;  France,  m 
virtue  of  Cartier's  discovery,  the  region  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.  But,  while  New  Spain  and  New  Por- 
tugal flourished  in  the  sixteenth  century,  New 
France  and  New  England  were  yet  to  rise. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  both  France  and  Eng- 
land were  occupied  with  momentous  things  at 


20  ELi.:.iBETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

home.  France  was  torn  with  religious  wan. 
Tudor  England  had  much  work  to  do  before 
any  effective  English  colonies  could  be  planted. 
Oversea  dominions  are  nothing  without  sufficient 
sea  power,  naval  and  mercantile,  to  win,  to  hold, 
and  foster  them.  But  Tudor  England  was  grad- 
ually forming  those  naval  and  merchant  services 
without  which  there  could  have  been  neither 
British  Empire  nor  United  States. 

Henry  VHI  had  faults  which  have  been  trum- 
peted about  the  world  from  hia  own  day  to  ours. 
But  of  all  English  sovereigns  he  stands  foremost 
as  the  monarch  of  the  sea.  Young,  handsome, 
learned,  exceedingly  accomplished,  gloriously 
strong  in  body  and  in  mind,  Henry  mounted  the 
throne  in  1509  with  the  hearty  good  will  of  neariy 
all  his  subjects.  Before  England  could  become 
the  mother  country  of  an  empire  overseas,  she 
had  to  shake  off  her  mediaeval  weaknesses,  be- 
come a  strongly  imiiied  modern  state,  and  arm 
herself  against  any  probable  combination  of  hos- 
tile foreign  states.  Happily  for  herself  and  for 
her  future  colonists,  Henry  was  richly  endowed 
with  strength  and  skill  for  his  task.  With  one 
hand  he  welded  England  into  political  unity. 


KING  HENBY  VHI  81 

crushing  disruptive  forces  by  the  way.  With 
the  other  he  gradually  built  up  a  fleet  the  like  of 
which  the  world  had  never  seen.  He  had  the 
advantage  of  being  more  independent  of  parlia- 
mentary supplies  than  any  other  sovereign.  From 
his  thrifty  father  he  had  inherited  what  was  then 
an  almost  fabulous  sum  —  nine  million  dollars 
in  cash.  From  what  his  friends  call  the  conver- 
sion, and  his  enemies  the  spoliation,  of  Church 
property  in  England  he  obtained  many  millions 
more.  Moreover,  the  people  as  a  whole  always 
rallied  to  his  call  whenever  he  wanted  other 
national  resources  for  the  national  defence. 

Henry's  unique  distinction  is  that  he  effected 
the  momentous  change  from  an  ancient  to  a 
modem  fleet.  This  supreme  achievement  con- 
stitutes his  real  title  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of 
English-speaking  peoples.  His  first  care  when 
he  came  to  the  throne  in  1509  was  for  the  safety 
of  the  'Broade  Ditch,*  as  he  called  the  English 
Channel.  His  last  great  act  was  to  establish  in 
1546  'The  Oflice  of  the  Admiralty  and  Marine 
Affairs.'  During  the  thirty-seven  years  between 
his  accession  and  the  creation  of  this  Navy 
Board  the  pregnant  change  was  made. 

'King  Heiuy  loved  a  man.'   He  had  an  uner- 


22  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

ring  eye  for  choosing  the  right  leaders.  He  delight- 
ed in  everything  to  do  with  ships  and  ship- 
ping. He  mixed  freely  with  naval  men  and  mer- 
chant skippers,  visited  the  dockyards,  promoted 
several  improved  types  of  vessels,  and  always 
befriended  Fletcher  of  Rye,  the  shipwright  who 
discovered  the  art  of  tacking  and  thereby  revolu- 
tionized navigation.  Nor  was  the  King  only 
a  patron.  He  invented  a  new  type  of  vessel 
himself  and  thoroughly  mastered  scientific  gun- 
nery. He  was  the  first  of  national  leaders  to 
grasp  the  full  significance  of  what  could  be  done 
by  broadsides  fired  from  sailing  ships  against  the 
medieeval  type  of  vessel  that  still  depended  mme 
on  oars  than  on  sails. 

Henry's  maritime  rivals  were  the  two  greatest 
monarchs  of  continental  Europe,  Francis  I  of 
France  and  Charles  V  of  Spain.  Henry,  Francis, 
and  Charles  were  all  young,  all  ambitious,  and  all 
exceedingly  capable  men.  Henry  had  the  fewest 
subjects,  Charles  by  far  the  most.  Francis  had 
a  compact  kingdom  well  situated  for  a  great 
European  land  power.  Henry  had  one  equally 
well  .situated  for  a  great  European  sea  power. 
Charles  ruled  vast  dominions  scattered  over  both 
the  New  World  and  the  Old.    The  destinies  of 


KING  HENRY  VIH  23 

mankind  turned  mostly  on  the  rivalry  between 
these  three  protagonists  and  their  successors. 

Charles  V  was  heir  to  several  crowns.  He  ruled 
Spain,  the  Netherlands,  the  Kingdom  of  the  Two 
Sicilies,  and  important  principalities  in  northern 
Italy.  He  was  elected  Emperor  of  Germany. 
He  owned  enormous  oversea  dominions  in  Africa; 
and  the  two  Americas  soon  became  New  Spain. 
He  governed  each  part  of  his  European  dominions 
by  a  different  title  and  under  a  different  constitu- 
tion. He  had  no  fixed  imperial  capital,  but  moved 
about  from  place  to  place,  a  Intimate  sov^ign 
everywhere  and,  for  the  most  part,  a  popular  one 
as  well.  It  was  his  son  Philip  11  who,  failing  of 
election  as  Emperor,  lived  only  in  Spain,  con- 
centrated the  machinery  of  government  in  Madrid, 
and  became  so  unpopular  elsewhere.  Charles 
had  been  brought  up  in  Flanders;  he  was  genial 
in  the  Flemish  way;  and  he  understood  his  various 
states  in  the  Netherlands,  which  furnished  him 
with  one  of  his  main  sources  of  revenue.  An- 
other and  much  larger  sovu-ce  of  revenue  poured 
in  its  wealth  to  him  later  on,  in  rapidly  increasing 
volume,  from  North  and  South  America. 

Charles  had  inherited  a  long  and  bitter  feud 
with  France  about  the  Burgundian  dominions  on 


U  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

the  French  side  of  the  Rhine  and  about  domains 
in  Italy;  besides  which  there  were  many  points  of 
violent  rivalry  between  things  French  and  Span- 
ish. England  also  had  hereditary  feuds  with 
France,  which  had  come  down  from  the  Hundred 
Years*  War,  and  which  had  ended  in  her  almost 
final  eicpulsion  from  France  less  than  a  century 
before.  Scotland,  nursing  old  feuds  against  Eng- 
land and  always  afraid  of  absorption,  naturally 
sided  with  France.  Portugal,  small  and  open  to 
Spanish  invasion  by  land,  was  more  or  less  bound 
to  please  Spain. 

During  the  many  campaigns  between  Francis 
and  Charles  the  English  Channel  swarmed  with 
men-of-war,  privateers,  and  downright  pirates. 
Sometimes  England  took  a  hand  oflScially  against 
France.  But,  even  when  England  was  not  oflS- 
cially at  war,  many  Englishmen  were  privateers 
and  not  a  few  were  pirates.  Never  was  there  a 
better  training  school  of  fighting  seamanship  than 
in  and  around  the  Narrow  Seas.  It  was  a  con- 
tinual struggle  for  an  existence  in  which  only  the 
fittest  survived.  Quickness  was  essential.  Con- 
sequently vessels  that  could  not  increase  their 
speed  were  soon  cleared  off  the  sea. 

Spain  suffered  a  good  deal  by  this  continuous 


KING  HENRY  VIII  25 

raiding.  So  did  the  Netherlands.  But  such  was 
the  power  of  Charles  that,  although  his  navies 
were  mMch  weaker  than  his  armies,  he  yet  was 
able  to  nght  by  sea  on  two  enormous  fronts,  first, 
in  the  Mediterranean  against  the  Turks  and  other 
Moslems,  secondly,  in  the  Channel  and  along  the 
coast,  all  the  way  from  Antwerp  to  Cadiz.  Nor 
did  the  left  arm  of  his  power  stop  there;  for  his 
fleets,  his  transports,  and  his  merchantmen  ranged 
the  coasts  of  both  Americas  from  one  side  of  the 
present  United  States  right  round  to  the  other. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  position  of  maritime 
Europe  when  Henry  foimd  himself  menaced  by 
the  three  Roman  Catholic  powers  of  Scotland, 
France,  and  Spain.  In  1533  he  had  divorced  his 
first  wife,  Catherine  of  Aragon,  thereby  drying 
the  Tope  and  giving  offence  to  Spam.  He  had 
again  defied  the  Pope  by  suppressing  the  monas- 
teries and  severing  the  Church  of  England  froL 
the  Roman  discipline.  The  Pope  had  struck 
back  wit'i  a  bull  of  excommunication  designed  to 
make  Heiu-y  the  common  enemy  of  Catholic 
Europe. 

Henry  had  been  steadily  building  ships  for 
years.  Now  he  redoubled  his  activity.  He 
blooded  the  fathers  of  his  daughter's  sea-dogs  by 


26 


ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


smashing  up  a  pirate  fleet  and  sinking  a  flotilla 
of  Flemish  privateers.  The  mouth  of  the  Scheldt, 
in  1539,  was  full  of  vessels  ready  to  take  a  hostile 
army  into  England.  But  such  a  fighting  fleet 
prepared  to  meet  them  that  Henry's  enemies 
forbore  to  strike. 

In  1539,  too,  came  the  discovery  of  the  art  of 
taddng,  by  Fletcher  of  Rye,  Henry's  shipwright 
friend,  a  discovery  forever  memorable  in  the  an- 
nals of  seamanship.  Never  before  had  any  kind 
of  craft  been  sailed  a  single  foot  against  the  wind. 
The  primitive  dugout  on  which  the  prehistoric 
savage  hoisted  the  first  semblance  of  a  sail,  the 
ships  of  Tarshish,  the  Roman  transport  in  which 
St.  Paul  was  wreck  and  the  Spanish  caravels 
with  which  Columbus  sailed  to  worlds  unknown, 
were,  in  principle  of  navigation,  all  the  same.  But 
now  Fletcher  ran  out  his  epoch-making  vessel, 
with  sails  trimmed  fore  and  aft,  and  dumbfounded 
all  the  shipping  in  the  Channel  by  beating  his 
yM.j  to  windward  against  a  good  stiff  breeze. 
This  achievement  marked  the  dawn  of  the  modern 
sailing  age. 

And  so  it  happened  that  in  1545  Henry,  with  a 
new-bom  modem  fleet,  was  able  to  tum  defi- 
antly on  Francis.   The  English  people  rallied 


KING  HENRY  VHI  97 
magnificently  to  his  call.   WTiat  was  at  that  time 

an  enormous  army  covered  the  lines  of  advance 
on  London.    But  the  fleet,  though  employing 
fewer  men,  was  relatively  a  much  more  important 
force  than  the  army;  and  with  the  fleet  weat 
Henry's  own  headtiuarters.    His  lifelong  interest 
in  his  navy  now  bore  the  first-fruits  of  really 
scientific  sea  power  on  an  oceanic  scale.  There 
was  DO  great  naval  battle  to  fix  general  attention 
on  one  dramatic  moment.   Henry's  strategy  and 
tactics,  however,  were  new  and  full  of  promise. 
He  repeated  his  strategy  of  the  previous  war  by 
sending  out  a  strong  squadron  to  attack  the  base 
at  which  the  enemy's  ships  were  then  assembling; 
and  he  definitely  committed  the  English  navy, 
alone  among  all  the  navies  in  the  world,  to  sailing- 
ship  tactics,  instead  of  continuing  those  founded 
on  the  rowing  galley  of  immemorial  fame.  The 
change  from  a  sort  of  floating  army  to  a  really 
naval  fleet,  from  galleys  moved  by  oars  and  de- 
pending on  boarders  who  were  soldiers,  to  ships 
moved  by  sails  and  depending  on  their  broadside 
guns  — this  change  was  quite  as  important  as 
the  change  in  the  nineteenth  century  from  sails 
and  smooth-bores  to  steam  and  rifled  ordnance. 
It  was,  indeed,  from  at  least  one  commanding 


M  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

point  of  view,  much  more  important;  for  it  meant 
that  England  was  easily  first  in  developing  the 
only  kind  of  navy  which  would  count  in  any 
struggle  for  oversea  dominion  after  the  discovery 
of  America  had  made  sea  power  no  longer  a  ques- 
tion of  coasts  and  landlocked  waters  but  of  all 
the  outer  oceans  of  the  world. 

The  year  that  saw  the  birth  of  modern  sea  power 
u  a  date  to  be  remembered  in  this  history;  for 
waa  also  the  year  in  which  the  mines  of 
Potoii  first  aroused  the  Old  World  to  the  riches 
of  the  New;  it  was  the  year,  too,  in  which  Sir 
IVancis  Drake  was  bom.  Moreover,  there  was 
another  significant  birth  in  this  same  year.  The 
parole  aboard  the  Portsmooth  fleet  was  God  tme 
the  King!  The  answering  countersign  was  Ixmg 
to  reign  over  us  !  These  words  formed  the  nucleus 
of  the  national  anthem  now  sung  round  all  the 
Seven  Seas.  The  anthems  of  other  countries  were 
born  on  land.  God  save  the  King  I  sprang  from  the 
navy  and  the  sea. 

The  Reformation  quickened  seafaring  life  in 
many  ways.  After  Henry's  excommunication 
every  Roman  Catholic  crew  had  full  Papal  sanc- 
tion for  attacking  every  English  crew  that  would 


KING  HENRY  Vm  fl» 
not  submit  to  Rome,  no  matter  how  CftthoUe  Itf 

faith  might  be.  Thus,  in  addition  to  danger  from 
pirates,  privateers,  and  men-of-war,  an  Englidb 
merchantman  had  to  risk  attack  by  any  one  who 
was  either  passionately  Roman  or  determined  to 
use  religion  as  a  cloak.  Raids  and  reprisals  grew 
apace.  The  English  were  by  no  means  always 
lambs  in  piteous  contrast  to  the  Fiinal  wolves. 
Rather,  it  might  be  said,  they  took  a  motto  from 
this  true  Russian  proverb:  'Make  yourself  a 
sheep  and  you'll  find  no  lack  of  wolves.'  But, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  the  general  Tlaglish  view  was 
that  the  Papal  attitude  was  one  of  attack  while 
their  own  was  one  of  defence.  Papal  Europe  of 
course  thought  quite  the  reverse. 

Henry  died  in  1547,  and  the  Lord  Phytector 
Somerset  at  once  tried  to  make  England  as  Ph>- 
testant  as  possible  during  the  minority  of  Edward 
VI,  who  was  not  yet  ten  years  old.  This  brought 
every  English  seaman  under  suspicion  in  evoy 
Spanish  port,  where  the  Holy  Office  of  the  Inqui- 
sition was  a  great  deal  more  vigilant  and  business- 
like than  the  Custom  House  or  Harbor  Master. 
Inquisitors  had  seized  Englishmen  in  Henry's 
time.  But  Charles  had  stayed  their  hand.  Now 
that  the  ruler  of  England  was  an  open  heretic,  who 


so  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

appeared  to  reject  the  accepted  forms  of  Catholic 
belief  as  well  as  the  Papal  forms  of  Roman  disci- 
pline, the  hour  had  come  to  strike.  War  would 
have  followed  in  ordinary  times.  But  the  Refor- 
mation had  produced  a  cross-division  among  the 
subjects  of  all  the  Great  Powers.  If  Charles 
went  to  war  with  a  Protestant  Lord  Protector  of 
England  then  some  of  his  own  subjects  in  the 
Netherlands  would  probably  revolt.  France  had 
her  Huguenots;  England  her  ultra-Papists;  Scot- 
land some  of  both  kinds.  Every  country  had  an 
unknown  number  of  enemies  at  home  and  friends 
abroad.   All  feared  war. 

Somerset  n^Iected  the  navy.  But  the  sea- 
faring men  among  the  Protestants,  as  among 
those  Catholics  who  were  anti-Roman,  took  to 
privateering  more  than  ever.  Nor  was  explora- 
tion forgotten.  A  group  of  merchant-adventurers 
sent  Su-  Hugh  Willoughby  to  find  the  Northeast 
Passage  to  Cathay.  Willoughby's  three  ships 
were  towed  down  the  Thames  by  oarsmen  dressed 
in  sky-blue  jackets.  As  they  passed  the  palace 
at  Greenwich  they  dipped  their  colors  in  salute. 
But  the  poor  young  king  was  too  weak  to  come  to 
the  window.  Willoughby  met  his  death  in  Lap- 
land.  But  Chancellor,  his  second-in-command. 


KING  HENRY  VIII  81 

got  through  to  the  White  Sea,  pushed  on  overland 
to  Moscow,  and  returned  safe  in  1554,  when 
Queen  Mary  was  on  the  t^^rone.    Next  year, 
strange  to  say,  the  charter  of  the  new  Muscovy 
Company  was  granted  by  Philip  of  Armada  fame, 
now  joint  sovereign  of  England  with  his  newly 
married  wife,  soon  to  be  known  as  'Bloody  Mary.* 
One  of  the  directors  of  the  company  was  Lord 
Howard  of  Effingham,  father  of  Drake's  Lord 
Admiral,  while  the  governor  was  our  old  friend 
Sebastian  Cabot,  now  in  his  eightieth  year.  Philip 
was  Crown  I^ce  of  the  Spanish  Empire,  and  his 
father,  Charles  V,  was  very  anxious  that  he  should 
please  the  stubborn  English;  for  if  he  could  only 
become  both  Kmg  of  £n|^d  and  Emperor  of 
Germany  he  would  rule  the  world  by  sea  as  well 
as  land.    Philip  did  his  ineffective  best:  drank 
English  beer  in  public  as  if  he  liked  it  and  made 
his  stately  Spanish  courtiers  drink  it  too  and  smile. 
He  spent  Spanish  gold,  brought  over  from  America, 
and  he  got  the  convenient  kind  of  EngUshmen  to 
take  it  as  spy-money  for  many  years  to  come. 
But  with  it  he  likewise  sowed  some  dragon's 
teeth.    The  English  sea-dogs  never  forgot  the 
iron  chests  of  Spanish  New-World  gold,  and 
presently  began  to  wonder  whether  there  was  no 


82  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

sure  way  in  far  America  by  which  to  get  it  for 
themselves. 

In  the  same  year,  1555,  the  Marian  attack  on 
English  heretics  began  and  the  sea  became  safer 
than  the  land  for  those  who  held  strong  anti- 
Papal  views.  The  Royal  Navy  was  neglected 
even  more  than  it  had  been  lately  by  the  Lord 
Brotector.  But  fighting  trades,  privateers,  and 
pirates  multiplied.  The  seaports  were  hotbeds 
of  hatred  against  Mary,  Philip,  Papal  Rome,  and 
Spanish  Inquisition.  In  1556  Sebastian  Cabot 
re^>pears,  genial  and  prosperous  as  ever,  and 
dances  out  of  history  at  the  sailing  of  the  Serch- 
thrift,  bound  northeast  for  Muscovy.  In  1557 
Philip  came  back  to  England  for  the  last  time  and 
manoeuvred  her  into  a  war  which  cost  her  Calais, 
the  last  English  foothold  on  the  soil  of  France. 
During  this  war  an  English  squadron  joined 
Philip's  vessels  in  a  victory  over  the  French  off 
Gravelines,  where  Drake  was  to  fight  the  Armada 
thirty  years  later. 

This  first  of  the  two  battles  fought  at  Gravelines 
brings  us  down  to  1558,  the  year  in  which  Mary 
died;  Elizabeth  succeeded  her,  and  a  very  different 
English  age  began. 


CHAPTER  m 


LIFE  AIliOAT  m  TUDOB  TnfES 

Two  stories  from  Hakluyt's  Voyages  will  illustrate 
what  sort  of  work  the  English  were  attempting 
in  America  about  15S0»  near  the  middle  of  King 
Henry's  reign.  The  success  of  'Master  Haukins' 
and  the  failure  of  'Mas^T  Hore*  are  quite  typical 
of  several  other  adventures  in  the  New  Worid. 

'Olde  M.  William  TTanlrina  of  Flimmouth,  a 
man  for  his  wisdome,  valure,  experience,  and  ddll 
in  sea  causes  much  esteemed  and  bdoved  <^  "Kiiig 
Henry  the  eight,  and  bemg  one  of  the  prindpall 
Sea  Captaines  in  the  West  partes  of  England  in 
his  time,  not  contented  with  the  short  voyages 
commonly  then  made  onely  to  the  knowen  coastes 
of  Europe,  armed  out  a  tall  and  goodlie  ship  of 
his  owne,  of  the  burthen  of  250  tunnes,  called  the 
Pole  of  Plimmouth,  wherewith  he  made  three 
long  and  famous  voyages  vnto  the  coast  of  Brasill, 
a  thing  in  those  days  very  rare,  especially  to  our 

3  SS 


84  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Nation.'  Hawkins  first  went  down  the  Guinea 
Coast  of  Africa,  'where  he  trafiqued  with  the 
Negroes,  and  tooke  of  them  Oliphants'  teeth,  and 
other  commodities  which  that  place  yeeldeth; 
and  so  arriving  on  the  coast  of  Brasil,  used  there 
such  discretion,  and  behaved  himselfe  so  wisely 
with  those  savage  people,  that  he  grew  into  great 
familiaritie  and  friendship  with  them.  Inso- 
much that  in  his  2  voyage  one  <A  the  savage  Ifings 
of  the  Countrey  of  Brasil  was  contented  to  take 
ship  with  him,  and  to  be  transported  hither  into 
Engluid.  This  kinge  was  presented  unto  Eing 
Henry  8.  The  King  and  all  the  Nobilitie  did  not 
a  little  marvel;  for  in  his  cheeks  were  holes,  and 
therein  small  bones  planted,  which  in  his  Countrey 
was  reputed  for  a  great  braverie.'  The  poor 
Brazilian  monarch  died  on  his  voyage  back, 
which  made  Hawkins  fear  for  the  life  of  Martin 
Cockeram,  whom  he  had  left  in  Brazil  as  a  hos- 
tage. However,  the  Brazilians  took  Hawkins's 
word  for  it  and  released  Cockeram,  who  lived 
another  forty  years  in  Plymouth.  'Olde  M. 
William  Haukins'  was  the  father  of  Sir  John 
Hawkins,  Drake's  companion  in  arms,  whom 
we  shall  meet  later.  He  was  also  the  grand- 
fatha  of  Sir  Richard  Hawkins,  another  naval 


LIFE  AFLOAT  IN  TUDOR  TIMES  85 

hero,  and  of  the  second  William  Hawkins,  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  greatest  of  all  char- 
tered companies,  the  Honourable  East  India 

Company. 

Hawkins  knew  what  he  was  about.  'Master 
Hore'  did  not.  Hore  was  a  well-meaning,  plaus- 
ible fellow,  good  at  taking  up  new-fangled  ideas, 
bad  at  carrying  them  out,  and  the  very  cut  of  a 
wildcat  company-promoter,  except  for  his  honesty. 
He  persuaded  'divers  young  lawyers  of  the  Innes 
of  Coiu^  and  Chancerie*  to  go  to  Newfoundland. 
A  hundred  and  twenty  men  set  oflP  in  this  modem 
ship  of  fools,  which  ran  into  Newfoundland  at 
night  and  was  wrecked.  There  WCTe  no  provisions ; 
and  none  of  the  *  divers  lawyers'  seems  to  have 
known  how  to  catch  a  fish.  Aftw  trying  to  live 
on  wild  fruit  they  took  to  eating  each  other,  in 
spite  of  Master  Hore,  who  stood  up  boldly  and 
warned  them  of  the  'Fire  to  Come.*  Just  then 
a  French  fishing  smack  came  in;  whereupon 
the  lawyers  seized  her,  put  her  wretched  crew 
ashore,  and  sailed  away  with  all  the  food 
she  had.  The  outraged  Frenchmen  found  an- 
other vessel,  chased  the  lawyers  back  to  Eng- 
land, and  laid  their  case  before  the  King,  who, 
'out  of  his  Royall  Bountie,*  reimbursed  the 


86  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Frenchmen  and  let  the  *  divers  lawyers'  go 
scot  free. 

Hawkins  and  Hore,  and  others  like  them,  were 
the  heroes  of  travellers'  tales.  But  what  was  the 
ordinary  life  of  the  sailor  who  went  down  to  the 
sea  in  the  ships  of  the  Tudor  age  ?  There  are  very 
few  quite  authentic  descriptions  of  life  afloat 
before  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century;  and  even 
then  we  rarely  see  the  ship  and  crew  about  their 
ordinary  work.  Everybody  was  all  agog  for 
marvellous  discoveries.  Nobody,  least  of  all  a 
seaman,  bothered  his  head  about  describing  the 
daily  routine  on  board.  We  know,  however, 
that  it  was  a  lot  of  almost  incredible  hardship. 
Only  the  fittest  could  survive.  Elizabethan  lands- 
men may  have  been  quite  as  prone  to  mistake 
comfort  for  civilization  as  most  of  the  world  is 
said  to  be  now.  Elizabethan  sailors,  when  afloat, 
most  certainly  were  not;  and  for  the  simple  rea- 
son that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  real  comfort 
in  a  ship. 

Here  are  a  few  verses  from  the  oldest  genuine 
English  sea-song  known.  They  were  written 
down  in  the  fifteenth  century,  before  the  discovery 
of  America,  and  were  probably  touched  up  a  little 


LIFE  AFLOAT  IN  TUDOR  TIMES  87 

by  the  scribe.  The  original  manuscript  is  now  in 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  It  is  a  true  nautical 
composition  —  a  very  rare  thing  indeed;  for  gen- 
uine sea-songs  didn't  often  get  into  print  and 
weren't  enjoyed  by  landsmen  when  they  did. 
The  setting  is  that  of  a  merchantman  carrying 
passengers  whose  discomforts  rather  amuse  the 
'schippemenne.' 

Anon  the  master  commandeth  fast 
To  his  shi{}-men  in  all  the  ha3t[e], 
To  dresse  them  [line  up]  soon  about  the  mast 
Their  takeling  to  make. 

With  Howe!  Hissal  then  they  cry, 

'What  howe!  mate  thou  standest  too  nigh. 

Thy  fellow  may  not  haul  thee  by:* 

IhuB  th^  b^in  to  crake  [shout]. 

A  boy  or  twain  anon  up-steyn  [go  aloft] 
And  overthwart  the  sayle-yerde  leyn  [lie] 
Y-howl  taylial  the  remnant  cryen  [cry] 
And  pull  with  all  thdr  m^t. 

Bestow  the  boat,  boat-swain,  anon. 

That  our  pylgrymms  may  play  thereon; 
For  some  are  like  to  cough  and  groan 
Ere  it  be  full  midnight. 


EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Haul  the  bowline!   Now  veer  the  sheet! 
Cook,  make  ready  anon  our  meat! 
Our  pylgrymms  have  no  lust  to  eat: 
I  pray  God  give  them  rest. 

Go  to  the  helm!  What  ho!  no  neare[r]! 

Steward,  fellow!  a  pot  of  beer! 
Ye  shall  have,  Sir,  with  good  cheer. 
Anon  all  of  the  best. 

Y-howe!    Trussa!   Haul  in  the  brailes ! 
Thou  haulest  not!   By  God,  thou  failes[t]. 
O  see  how  well  our  good  ship  sails! 
And  thus  they  say  among. 


Thys  meane'whyle  the  pylgrymms  he, 
And  have  their  bowls  all  fast  them  by. 
And  cry  after  hot  malvesy  — 

'Their  health  for  to  restore.' 


Some  lay  their  bookys  on  their  knee. 
And  read  so  long  they  cannot  see. 
'Alas!  mine  head  will  spht  in  three!' 
Thus  sayeth  one  poor  wight. 


.A  sack  of  straw  were  there  right  good; 
For  some  must  lay  them  in  their  hood: 
I  had  as  lief  be  in  the  wood. 

Without  or  meat  or  drink! 


LIFE  AFLOAT  IN  TUDOR  TIMES  39 

For  when  that  we  shall  go  to  bed. 
The  pump  is  nigh  our  beddSs  head: 
A  man  he  were  as  good  be  dead 

As  smell  thereof  the  stynke! 

Howe — hisaat  is  still  used  aboard  deepwater- 
men  as  Ho  —  hissa!  instead  of  Ho  —  hoisl  away  I 
What  ho,  motel  is  also  known  afloat,  though  dying 
out.  Y-howe!  taylial  is  Yo  —  ho!  tally!  or  Tally 
and  belay!  which  means  hauling  aft  and  making 
fast  the  sheet  of  a  mainsail  or  foresail.  What  ho! 
no  nearer!  is  What  ho!  no  higher  now.  But  old 
salts  remember  no  nearer!  and  it  may  be  still  ex- 
tant. Seasickness  seems  to  have  been  the  same 
as  ever  —  so  was  the  desperate  effort  to  pretend 
one  wa^  not  really  feeling  it: 

And  cry  after  hot  malvesy — 
'Their  health  for  to  restore.* 

Here  is  another  sea-song,  one  sung  by  the  sea- 
dogs  themselves.  The  doubt  is  whether  the 
Martial-men  are  Navy  men,  as  distinguished  from 
merchant-service  men  aboard  a  king's  ship,  or 
whether  they  are  soldiers  who  want  to  take  all 
sailors  down  a  peg  or  two.   This  seems  the  more 


40  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

probable  explanation.  Soldiers  'ranked'  sailors 
afloat  in  the  sixteenth  century;  and  Drake's  was 
the  first  fleet  in  the  world  in  which  seamen- 
admirals  were  allowed  to  fight  a  purely  naval 
action. 

We  be  three  poor  Mariners,  newly  come  from  the  Seas, 
We  spend  our  lives  in  jeopardy  while  others  live  at  ease. 
We  care  not  for  those  Martial-men  that  do  our  states 
disdain. 

But  we  care  for  those  Merchant-men  that  do  our  states 

roft'ntff'Hi 

A  third  old  sea-song  gives  voice  to  the  universal 
complaint  that  landsmen  cheat  sailors  who  come 
home  flush  of  gold. 

For  Sailors  th^  be  honest  men. 

And  they  do  take  great  pains. 
But  Land-men  and  ru£9ing  lads 
Do  rob  them  of  their  gains. 

Here,  too,  is  some  Cordial  Advice  against  the 
wfles  of  the  sea,  addressed  To  aU  rash  young  Men, 
who  think  to  Advance  their  decaying  Fortunes  by 
Navigation,  as  most  of  the  sea-dogs  (and  gentlonen- 
adventurers  like  Gilbert,  Raleigh,  and  Cavendish) 
tried  to  do. 


LIFE  AFLOAT  IN  TUDOR  TIMES  41 

You  merchant  men  of  Billingsgate, 

I  wonder  how  you  thrive. 
You  bargain  with  men  for  six  months 

And  pay  them  but  for  five. 

This  wa^  an  abuse  that  took  a  long  time  to  die 
out.  Even  well  on  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  sometimes  even  on  board  of  steamers,  vic- 
tualling was  only  by  the  lunar  month  though 
service  went  by  the  calendar. 

A  cursed  cat  with  thrice  three  tails 
Doth  much  increase  our  woe 

is  a  poetical  way  of  putting  another  seaman's 

grievance. 

People  who  regret  that  there  is  such  a  dis- 
erepar<-y  between  genuine  sea-songs  and  shore- 
going  imitations  will  be  glad  to  know  that  the 
Mermaid  is  genuine,  though  the  usual  air  to  which 
it  was  sung  afloat  was  harsh  and  decidedly  inferior 
to  the  one  used  ashore.  This  example  of  the 
old  'fore-bitters'  (so-called  because  sung  from  the 
fore-bitts,  a  convenient  mass  of  stout  timbers 
near  the  foremast)  did  not  luxuriate  in  the  repeti- 
tions of  its  shore-going  rival:  With  u  comb  and  a 
glass  in  her  hand,  her  hand,  her  hand,  etc. 


4«  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOCS 

Sclo.        On  Fri' lay  morn  as  we  net  sail 
It  was  not  far  from  land. 
Oh,  there  j  ..pic  l  a  fair  pretty  maid 
With  a  comb  and  a  glaas  in  bet  haiul. 

Chonu.    The  ■tormy  winds  did  blow, 

And  the  rating  s.  as  did  roar, 

While  w'>  po.    ^Milors  went  to  f  hc  topi. 

Aud  the  Jund  lubi  crs  laid  Ulow, 

The  anonymous  aulbor  -f  a  curious  composi- 
tion entitled  The  Complayiu  /jf  ScoOand,  written 
in  1548,  seems  to  be  the  only  man  who  took  more 
interest  in  the  means  than  in  the  ends  of  seaman- 
ship. He  was  undoubtedly  a  land-man.  But 
he  loved  the  things  of  the  sea;  ai  .  his  v.ork  Is 
well  worth  reading  us  a  vocabulary  of  the  lingo 
that  was  used  on  board  a  Tudor  shij)  When  tfie 
seamen  sanp  it  sounded  like  'an  <  (hr-  m  a  cavt-.' 
Many  of  the  outlamh'sh  \a  >rd.s  wer  diterni- 
nean  terms  which  the  scientific  Italian  ii  vigat.  , 
had  brought  north.  Others  were  of  Oriental 
origin,  which  was  very  natural  in  lew  of  the 
long  connection  between  East  aud  We  i  i?  sea. 
Admiral,  for  instance,  comes  from  the  Arabu  for 
a  commander-in-chief.  Amir-al-bakr  means  com- 
mander of  the  sea.  Most  of  the  nautical  t<  hni- 
caliti»  would  strike  a  seaman  of  the  present  day 


I 


UPE  AFLOAT  IN  TUDOR  TIMES  iJf 

fts  being  quite  mod'  rn.  Tht-  slxt(  ath-cen  jry 
skipper  would  bereadi  understood  by  u  Iwonf  icth- 
centur  lu'lm.sn  an  ii  t  ho  c  isi-  •{  su<  orders  as 
llu'sv:  Keep  full  and  I  i/.'  I.iiJ.  Cc  .<  Ibieadyl 
Ki  -  p  rl (),>(  .'  Our  moUorn  suii  'n  liu-  na  'y,  how- 
(  .  iT,  ^  'ild  be  liopi  lt's>!  lost  1  '•ying  o  f  llowdi- 
ri*cti'  'vclheii;  .  ^^■.^fak^  .^yy  u-  •no 
middh  ciiicer  ns,  i  re'  ilver  fai'  .  'ke 
tiiinij.s,  hi  idsti  ''s,  n;,,  p.'s     >!  -ujaai* 

.  jgc  .  crook  uripiebu>  ^<    ,  livers,    nd  lOt' 

Another  look  at  life  i  loa'  in  "  •  < 
century  brings  !S  «  n  n  re  -  tout  * 
America;  for  the  Id  ,»<  uhIo  dihe-  w  <  {  the 
TAKTNO  or  A  PR./.K  wcr*  'mir^  sliBUBed  up 
in  The  Seam&tCs  Oramh  ir,  ^fh  was  cmnpiled 
by  'Captaine  John  Si  utb,  .nm^  •Hum  Goy&raata 
of  Vii^inia  and  A  -nirui  <^  "^ew  Soglaad'  — 
'Pocah(mtas  Smith,  fact 

•A  sail!' 

*Ho    bears  she?   To-       *awl  l.  lee-ward? 

t  hii.  bv       con  oss! 

IT  "  '   i    right    aead   ,or  On  the  weather- 

.w  be 

'T-et  your  ''•ui>  ''if  rti  have  a  consort 
oKe  nt  vvitl        Mij!  saib!   A  steadie 

an  at  the  ,  .ui!    Givt  jncel* 


44  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

'Hee  holds  his  owne  —  No,  wee  gather  on  him, 

Captaine!' 

Out  goes  hh  flag  and  'pendants,  also  his  waist- 
ehtha  and  top-armings,  which  is  a  long  red  cloth 
.  .  .  that  goeth  round  about  the  shippe  on  the  out- 
sidea  of  aU  her  upper  works  and  fore  and  main-tops, 
as  well  for  the  countenance  and  grace  of  the  shippe 
as  to  cover  the  mm  from  being  seen.  He  furls  and 
slings  his  main-yard.  In  goes  his  sprit-sail.  Thus 
they  strip  themselves  into  their  fighting  sails,  which 
is,  only  the  foresail,  the  main  and  fore  topsails, 
because  the  rest  should  not  he  fired  nor  spoiled; 
besides,  they  would  he  troublesome  to  handle,  kinder 
our  sights  and  the  using  of  jur  arms. 

'He  makes  ready  his  close-fights,  fore  and 
aft.'  [Bulkheads  set  up  to  cover  men  under 
fire]  .  .  . 

'Every  man  to  his  charge!  Dowse  your  top- 
sail to  salute  him  for  the  sea!  Hail  him  with  a 
noise  of  trumpets!' 

'WTience  is  your  ship?* 

*0f  Spain  —  whence  is  yours?* 

•Of  England.' 

'Are  you  merchants  or  men  of  war?* 
'We  are  of  the  Sea!' 

He  waxes  us  to  leeward  with  his  dravm  sword. 


LIFE  AFLOAT  IN  TT'DOR  TIMES  45 

ccdls  out  *  Amain*  for  the  King  of  Spain^  and  springs 
his  luff  [brings  his  vessel  close  by  the  wind]. 

'Give  him  a  chase-piece  with  your  broadside, 
and  run  a  good  berth  a-head  of  him!' 

'Done,  done!' 

'We  have  the  wind  of  him,  and  now  he  tacks 
about!' 

'Tack  about  also  and  keep  your  luff!  Be  yare 
at  the  helm!  Edge  in  with  him!  Give  him  a 
volley  of  small  shot,  also  your  prow  and  broadside 
as  before,  and  keep  your  luff!* 

*He  pays  us  shot  for  shot!' 

'Well,  we  shall  requite  himf*  .  .  . 

'Edge  in  with  him  again!  with  your 

bow  pieces,  proceed  with  your  broad-side,  and 
let  her  fall  off  with  the  wind  to  give  him  also 
your  full  duue,  your  weather-broad-side,  and 
bring  her  roimd  so  that  the  stern  may  also  dis- 
charge, and  your  tacks  dose  aboard  again!'  .  .  . 

'The  wind  veers,  the  sea  goes  too  high  to  board 
her,  and  we  are  shot  through  and  through,  and 
between  wind  and  water.' 

'Try  the  pump!  Bear  up  the  helm!  Sling  a 
man  overboard  to  stop  the  leaks,  thai  is,  truss 
bim  up  around  the  middle  in  a  piece  of  canvas 
and  a  rope,  with  his  arms  at  liberty,  with  a  mallet 


46  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

and  plugs  lapped  in  oakum  and  well  tarred,  and 
a  tar-pauHng  clout,  which  he  will  quickly  beat 
into  the  holes  the  bullets  made.  * 

'What  cheer.  Mates,  is  all  Well?' 

•All's  well!' 

'Then  make  ready  to  bear  up  with  him  again!' 

'With  all  your  great  and  small  shot  charge  him, 
board  him  thwart  the  hawse,  on  the  bow,  mid- 
ships, or,  rather  than  fail,  on  his  quarter;  or  make 
fast  your  grapplings  to  his  close-fights  and  sheer 
off'  [which  would  tear  his  cover  down]. 

'Captain,  we  are  foul  of  each  other  and  the 
ship  is  on  fire!' 

'Cut  anything  to  get  dear  and  smother  the 
fire  with  wet  cloths!' 

In  such  a  case  they  mil  hee  presenUie  such  friendi 
as  to  help  c^e  the  other  all  they  can  to  get  clear,  lest 
tiwy  should  both  burn  together  and  so  sink:  and,  if 
they  be  generous,  and  the  fire  be  quenched,  they  vnU 
drink  kindly  one  to  the  other,  heave  their  conns 
over-board,  and  begin  again  as  before.  .  .  . 

'Chirurgeon,  look  to  the  wounded  and  wind 
up  the  slain,  and  give  them  three  guns  for  their 
funerals!  Swabber,  make  clean  the  ship!  Purser, 
record  their  names!  Watca,  be  vigilant  to  keep 
your  berth  to  windward,  that  we  lose  him  not  in 


LIFE  AFLOAT  IN  TUDOR  TIMES  47 

the  night!  Gunners,  spunge  your  ordnance! 
Souldiers,  scour  your  pieces!  Carpenters,  about 
your  leaks!  Boatswain  and  the  rest,  repair  sails 
and  shrouds!  Cook,  see  you  observe  your  direc- 
tions against  the  morning  watch!'  .  .  . 

•Boy,  hallo!  is  the  kettle  boiled?' 

'Ay,  ay.  Sir!' 

'Boatswain,  call  up  the  men  to  prayer  and 
breakfast!'  .  .  . 

Always  Juxoe  as  much  care  to  their  wounded  as 
to  your  own;  and  if  there  he  either  young  women 
or  aged  men,  use  them  nobly  .  .  . 

'Sound  drums  and  trumpets:  saint  osobgb  for 

MIBRRIl!  ENGLAND !' 


CH.\PTER  IV 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND 

Elizabethan  England  is  the  motherland,  the 
true  historic  home,  of  all  the  different  peoples 
who  speak  the  sea-borne  English  tongue.  In  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  there  was  only  one  Engli^- 
speaking  nation.  This  nation  consisted  of  a  bare 
five  million  people,  fewer  than  there  are  to- 
day in  London  or  New  York.  But  hardly  had 
the  Great  Queen  died  before  Englishmen  began 
that  colonizing  movement  which  has  carried 
their  language  the  whole  world  round  and  estab- 
lished their  civilization  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  Within  three  centuries  after  Elizabeth's 
day  the  use  of  English  as  a  native  speech  had 
grown  quite  thirtyfold.  Within  the  same  three 
centuries  the  number  of  those  living  under  laws 
and  institutions  derived  from  England  had  grown 
a  hundredfold. 
The  En^and  of  Elizabeth  was  an  England  of 

48 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  49 

great  deeds,  but  of  greater  dreams.  Elizabethan 
literature,  take  it  for  all  in  all,  has  never  been 
surpassed;  myriad-minded  Shakespeare  remains 
unequalled  still.  Elizabethan  England  was  indeed 
'a  nest  of  singing  birds.'  Prose  was  often  far 
too  pedestrian  for  the  exultant  life  of  such  a 
mighty  generation.  As  new  worlds  came  into 
their  expectant  ken,  the  glowing  Elizabethans 
wished  to  fly  there  on  the  soaring  wings  of  verse. 
To  them  the  tide  of  fortune  was  no  ordinary  stream 
but  the  'white-maned,  proud,  neck-arching  tide ' 
that  bore  adventurers  to  sea  'with  pomp  of 
waters  unwithstood. ' 

The  goodly  heritage  that  England  gave  her 
ofiFspring  overseas  included  Shake^eare  and  the 
English  Bible.  The  Authorized  Version  entered 
into  the  very  substance  of  early  American  life. 
There  was  a  marked  difference  between  Episco- 
palian Virginia  and  Puritan  New  England.  But 
both  took  their  stand  on  this  version  of  the  English 
Bible,  in  which  the  springs  of  Holy  Writ  rejoiced 
to  run  through  channels  of  Elizabethan  prose. 
It  is  true  that  Elizabeth  slept  with  her  fathers 
before  this  book  of  books  was  printed,  and  that 
the  first  of  the  Stuarts  reigned  in  her  stead.  Never- 
theless the  Authorized  Version  is  pure  Elizabethan. 


50  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

All  its  translators  were  Elizabethans,  aa  their 
dedication  to  King  James,  still  printed  with  every 
copy,  gratefully  acknowledges  in  its  reference  to 
'the  setting  of  that  bright  Occidental  Star,  Queea 
Elizabeth  of  most  happy  memory.  * 

These  words  of  the  reverend  scholars  contain 
no  empty  compliment.  Elizabeth  was  a  great 
sovereign  and,  in  some  essential  particulars,  a 
very  great  national  leader.  This  daughter  of 
Henry  Vm  and  his  second  wife,  Anne  Boleyn  the 
debonair,  was  bom  a  heretic  in  1538.  Her  father 
was  then  defying  both  Spain  and  the  Pope. 
Within  three  years  after  her  birth  her  mother  was 
beheaded;  and  by  Act  of  Parliament  Elizabeth 
herself  was  declared  illegitunate.  She  was  four- 
teen when  her  father  died,  leaving  the  kingdom  to 
his  three  children  in  succession,  Elizabeth  being 
the  third.  Then  followed  the  Protestant  reign  of 
the  boy-king  Edward  VI,  during  which  Elizabeth 
enjoyed  security;  then  the  Catholic  reign  of  her 
Spanish  half-sister,  'Bloody  Mary,'  during  which 
her  life  hung  by  the  merest  thread. 

At  first,  however,  Mary  concealed  her  hostility 
to  Elizabeth  because  she  thought  the  two  daughters 
of  Henry  VIII  ought  to  appear  together  in  her 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  51 

triumphal  entiy  into  London.  From  one  point 
of  view  —  and  a  feminine  one  at  that  —  this  was 
a  fatal  mistake  on  Mary's  part:  for  never  did 
Elizabeth  show  to  more  advantage.  She  was 
just  under  twenty,  while  Mary  was  nearly  twice 
her  age.  Mary  had,  indeed,  provided  herself 
with  one  good  foil  in  the  person  of  Anne  of  Cleves, 
the  'Flemish  mare'  whose  flat  coarse  face  and 
lumbering  body  had  disgusted  King  Henrj'  thir- 
teen years  before,  when  Cromwell  had  foisted 
her  upon  him  as  his  fourth  wife.  But  with  poor, 
fat,  straw-colored  Anne  on  one  side,  and  black- 
and-sallow,  foreign-looking,  man-voiced  Mary 
on  the  other,  the  thoroughly  English  Princess 
Efizabeth  took  London  by  storm  on  the  spot. 
Tall  and  majestic,  she  was  a  magnificent  example 
of  the  finest  Anglo-Norman  type.  Always  'the 
^ass  of  fashion'  and  then  the  very  'mould  of 
form*  her  splendid  figure  looked  equally  well  on 
horseback  or  on  foot.  A  little  full  m  the  ^e, 
and  with  a  slightly  aquiline  nose,  appeared, 
as  she  really  was,  keenly  observant  and  com- 
manding. Though  these  two  feature  just  pre- 
vented her  from  being  a  beauty,  the  bright  blue 
eyes  and  the  finely  chiselled  nose  were  themselves 
quite  beautiful  enmigh.   Nor  was  she  less  taking 


52  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

to  the  ear  than  to  the  eye;  for,  in  marked  contnwt 
to  gruff  foreign  Mary  and  wheezy  foreign  Anne, 
she  had  a  rich,  clear,  though  rather  too  loud, 
English  voice.  When  the  Court  reined  up  and 
dismounted,  Elizabeth  became  even  more  the 
centre  of  attraction.  Mary  marched  stiffly  on. 
Anne  plodded  after.  But  as  for  Elizabeth  —  per- 
fect in  dancing,  riding,  archery,  and  all  the  sports 
of  chivalry  — 'she  trod  the  ling  like  a  buck  in 
spring,  and  she  looked  like  a  lance  in  rest.' 

When  Elizabeth  succeeded  Mary  in  the  autumn 
of  1558,  she  had  dire  need  of  all  she  had  learnt  in 
her  twenty-five  years  of  adventurous  life.  For^ 
tunately  for  herself  and,  on  the  whole,  most 
fortunately  for  both  England  and  America,  she 
had  a  remarkable  power  of  inspiring  deyotitni  to 
the  service  of  their  queen  and  country  in  men  of 
both  the  cool  and  ardent  types;  and  this  long 
after  her  personal  charms  had  gone.  Govern- 
ment, religion,  finance,  defence,  and  foreign  affairs 
were  in  a  perilous  state  of  flux,  beside."  which  they 
have*  never  been  more  distractingly  mixed  up 
with  one  another.  Henry  VII  had  saved  money 
for  twenty-five  years.  His  three  successors  had 
spent  it  lavishly  for  fifty.    Henry  VIII  had  kept 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  58 

the  Church  Catholic  in  ritual  while  making  it 
purely  national  in  govomment.  The  Ix)rd  Pro- 
tector Somerset  had  made  it  as  Protestant  aM 
possible  under  Edward  VI,  Mary  had  done  her 
Lest  to  bring  it  back  to  the  Pope.  Home  affairs 
were  full  of  dmibts  and  dangers,  thoup!?  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  were  ready  to  give  their  hand- 
some young  queen  a  fair  chance  and  not  a  little 
favor.  Foreign  affairs  were  worse.  France  w^ 
stfll  the  hereditary  enemy;  and  the  loss  of  Calais 
under  Mary  had  exasper  ifed  the  whole  English 
nation.  Scotland  was  a  constant  menace  in  the 
north.  Spain  was  graduaUy  changing  from  fnead 
to  foe.  The  Pope  was  diondined  to  recognize 
Elizabeth  at  all. 

To  understand  hov  difficult  her  podtioc  -y.-s 
we  must  remember  what  sort  of  constitntiu ; 
England  had  whei  the  germ  of  the  United  Stat  -5 
was  forming  The  Roman  Empire  was  one 
constituent  vMiole  from  the  emperor  down.  The 
English-speaking  peoples  of  to-day  form  constit- 
uent wholes  from  the  electorate  up.  In  both 
cases  all  parts  were  and  are  in  constant  relation 
to  the  whole.  The  case  c'  Elizabethan  England, 
however,  was  very  ditferenL.  There  was  neither 
despotic  unity  from  abovs  nor  democratic  unity 


54  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

from  below,  but  a  mixed  and  fluctuating  kind  of 
government  in  which  Crown,  nobles,  parliament, 
and  people  formed  certain  parts  which  had  to  be 
put  together  for  each  occasion.   The  accepted 
general  idea  was  that  the  sovereign,  supreme  as 
an  individual,  looked  after  the  welfare  of  the 
country  in  peace  and  war  so  far  as  the  Crown  es- 
tates permitted;  but  that  whenever  the  Crown 
resources  would  not  suffice  then  the  sovereign  could 
call  on  nobles  and  people  for  whatever  the  common 
weal  required.    Noblesse  oblige.    In  return  for 
the  estates  or  monopolies  which  they  had  ac- 
quired the  nobles  and  favored  commoners  were 
expected  to  come  forward  with  all  tiieir  resources 
at  every  national  crisis  precisely  as  the  Crown 
was  expected  ic  work  for  the  common  weal  at 
all  times.    When  the  resources  of  th.-  Crown  and 
favored  courtiers  sufliced,  no  parliament  was 
called;  but  whenever  they  had  to  be  supplemented 
then  parliament  met  and  voted  whatever  it  ap- 
proved.   Finally,  every  English  freeman  was  re- 
quired to  do  his  own  share  towards  defending 
the  country  in  time  of  need,  and  he  was  further 
required  to  know  the  proper  use  of  arms. 

The  great  object  of  every  European  court 
during  early  modem  times  was  to  get  both  the 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  55 

old  feudal  nobility  and  the  newly  promoted 
commoners  to  revolve  round  the  throne  as  round 
the  centre  of  their  solar  system.  By  sheer  force 
of  character  —  for  the  Tudors  had  no  overwhelm- 
ing army  like  the  Roman  emperors'  —  Henry 
VIII  had  succeeded  wonderfully  well.  Elizabeth 
now  had  to  piece  together  what  had  been  broken 
wada  Edward  VI  and  Mary.  She,  too,  succeeded 
— and  with  the  hearty  goodwill  of  nearly  all  ha 
subjects. 

Mary  had  left  the  royal  treasury  deeply  in 
debt.  Yet  Elizabeth  succeeded  in  paying  off 
all  arrears  and  meeting  new  expenditure  for  de- 
fence and  for  the  court.  The  royal  income  rose. 
England  became  immensely  richer  and  more 
prosperous  than  ever  before.  Foreign  trade  in- 
creased by  leaps  and  bounds.  Home  industries 
flourished  and  were  stimulated  by  new  arrivals 
from  abroad,  because  England  was  a  safe  asylum 
for  the  craftsmen  whom  Philip  was  driving  from 
the  iVetherlands,  to  his  own  great  loss  and  his 
rival's  gain. 

English  commercial  life  had  been  slowly  emerg- 
ing from  mediaeval  ways  throughout  the  fifteenth 
century.   With  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 


59  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

the  rate  of  emergence  had  greatly  quickened. 
The  soil-bound  peasant  who  produced  enough 
food  for  his  family  from  his  thirty  acres  was 
being  gradually  replaced  by  the  well-to-do  yeo- 
man who  tilled  a  hundred  acres  and  upwards. 
Such  holdings  produced  a  substantial  surplus 
for  the  market.   This  increased  the  national 
wealth,  which,  in  its  turn,  increased  both  home 
and  foreign  trade.   The  peasant  merely  raised  a 
little  wheat  and  barley,  kept  a  cow,  and  perhaps 
some  sheep.   The  yeoman  or  tenant  ftamet  had 
sheep  enough  for  the  wool  trade  besides  some 
butter,  cheese,  and  meat  for  the  nearest  growing 
town.   He  began  to  'garnish  his  cupboards  with 
pewter  and  his  joined  beds  with  tapestry  and 
silk  hangings,  and  his  tables  with  carpets  and 
fine  napery.*    He  could  even  feast  his  neighbors 
and  servants  after  shearing  day  with  new-fangled 
foreign  luxuries  like  dates,  mace,  raisins,  currants, 
and  si«gar. 

But  Elizabethan  .society  presented  striking 
contrasts.  In  parts  of  England,  the  practice  of 
engrossing  and  enclosing  holdings  was  increasing, 
as  sheq>-raising  became  more  profitable  than 
farming.  Hie  tenants  thus  dispossessed  either 
swelled  the  ranks  of  the  vagabonds  who  infested 


EUZABETHAN  ENGLAND  57 

the  highways  or  sought  their  livelihood  at  sea  <a  in 
London,  which  provided  the  two  best  openings 
for  adventurous  young  men.  The  smaller  pro- 
vincial towns  afforded  them  little  opportunity ,- 
for  there  the  trades  were  largely  in  the  hands  of 
close  corporations  descended  from  the  mediaeval 
craft  guilds.  These  were  eventually  to  be  swept 
away  by  the  general  trend  of  business.  Their 
dissolution  had  indeed  already  begun;  for  smart 
village  craftsmen  were  even  then  forming  the 
new  industrial  settlemoits  from  which  most  ci 
the  great  manufacturing  towns  of  En^and  bave 
sprung.  Camden  the  historian  toaad  Birming- 
ham full  of  ringing  anvils,  SheflSdd  'a  town  <d 
great  name  tcf  the  sroiths  therein, '  Leeds  renown^ 
for  doth,  and  Manchestn  already  a  sort  oi  Cotton- 
opolis, though  the  'cottons*  of  those  days  were 
still  made  <^  wool. 

There  was  a  wages  question  then  as  now.  There 
were  demands  for  a  minimum  living  wage.  The 
influx  of  gold  and  silver  from  America  had  sent 
all  prices  s  aring.  Meat  became  almost  pro- 
hibitive for  the  'submerged  tenth'  —  there  was  a 
rapidly  submerging  tenth.  Beef  rose  from  one 
cent  a  pound  in  the  forties  to  four  in  1588,  the 
year  of  the  Armada.    How  would  the  lowest 


58  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

paid  of  craftsmen  fare  on  twelve  cents  a  day, 
with  butter  at  ten  cents  a  pound  ?  Efforts  were 
made,  again  and  again,  to  readjust  the  ratio 
between  prices  and  wages.  But,  as  a  rule,  prices 
increased  nmch  faster  than  wages. 

All  these  things  —  the  increase  of  surplus  hands, 
the  high  cost  of  living,  grievances  about  wages 
and  interest  —  tended  to  make  the  farms  and 
workshops  of  England  recruiting-grounds  for  the 
sea;  and  the  younf  men  would  strike  out  iar 
themselves  as  freights,  trado^,  privateers,  m 
downright  pirates,  lured  by  the  dazzling  diaiice  of 
great  and  sudden  wealth. 

'The  gamble  of  it'  was  as  potoit  then  m  now, 
probably  more  potent  still.  It  was  an  age  d 
wild  speculation  accompanied  by  aU  the  usual 
evils  that  follow  frenzied  ways.  It  was  also  an 
age  of  monopoly.  Both  monopoly  and  specula- 
tion sent  r(>cruits  into  the  sea-dog  ranks.  Eliza- 
betli  woulfl  grant,  say,  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
the  monopoly  of  sweet  wines.  Raleigh  would 
naturally  want  ;ts  much  sweet  wine  imported  as 
England  could  h.  induced  to  swallow.  So,  too, 
would  Elizabeth,  wao  got  the  duty.  Crews 
would  be  wanted  for  the  monopolistic  ships. 
They  would  also  be  wanted  for  'free-trading' 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  5? 

vessels,  that  is,  for  the  ships  of  the  smugglers  who 
underbid,  undersold,  and  tried  to  overreach  the 
monop  >I'st,  who  represented  law,  though  not 
quite  justice.    But  speculation  ran  to  greater 
extremes  than  either  monopoly  or  smuggling. 
Shakespeare's  'Putter-out  of  five  for  one'  was  a 
typical   Elizabethan  speculator  exploiting  the 
riskiest  form  of  sea-dog  trade  for  all  —  and  some- 
times tat  more  than  all  — that  it  was  worth. 
A  moidiaBt-adventurer  would  pay  a  capitalist, 
say,  a  thomand  pounds  as  a  premium  to  be  for> 
feited  if  his  ship  should  be  lost,  but  to  be  repaid 
by  the  ea{ntalist  fiv^old  to  the  merdbant  if  it 
returned.   IncrediUe  as  it  may  seam  to  us, 
there  were  shrewd  money-lenders  always  ready 
tor  this  sort  ci  deal  in  life  —  or  Itf e-and-death  — 
insurance:  an  eloquent  testimony  to  the  risks 
encountered  in  sailing  unknown  seas  in  the  midst 
of  well-known  dangers. 

Marine  insurance  of  the  regular  kind  was,  of 
course,  a  very  different  thing.  It  was  already  of 
immemorial  age,  going  back  certainly  to  mediasval 
and  probably  to  very  ancient  times.  All  forms  of 
insurance  on  land  are  mere  mushrooms  by  com- 
parison. Lloyd's  had  not  been  heard  of.  But 
there  were  plenty  of  smart  Elizabethan  under- 


60  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

writers  already  practising  the  general  principles 
which  were  to  be  formally  adopted  two  hundred 
years  later,  in  1779,  at  Lloyd's  Coffee  House.  A 
policy  taken  out  on  the  Tiger  immortalized  by 
Shakespeare  would  serve  as  a  model  still.  And 
what  makes  it  all  the  more  interesting  is  that  the 
Elizabethan  underwriters  calculated  the  T%ger*9 
chances  at  the  very  spot  where  the  association 
known  as  Lloyd's  transacts  its  business  to-day, 
the  Royal  Exchange  in  London.  This,  in  turn, 
brings  Elizabeth  herself  upon  the  scene;  for  when 
she  visited  the  Exchange,  which  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham  had  built  to  let  the  merchants  do  their 
street  work  under  cover,  she  immediately  grasped 
its  full  significance  and  'caused  it  by  an  Herald 
and  a  Trumpet  to  be  proclaimed  The  Royal 
Exchange, '  the  name  it  bears  to-day.  An  Eliz- 
abethan might  well  be  astonished  by  what  he 
would  see  at  any  modem  Lloyd's.  Yet  he  would 
find  the  same  essentials;  for  the  British  Lloyd's, 
like  most  of  its  foreign  imitators,  is  not  a  gigantic 
insurance  company  at  all,  but  an  association  of 
cautioAuly  elected  members  who  carry  on  their 
completely  independent  private  busmess  in  daily 
touch  with  each  other  —  precisely  as  Elizabethans 
did.   Uoyd's  method  differs  wholly  from  ordi- 


EUZABETHAN  ENGLAND  61 

nary  insurance.  Instead  of  insuring  vessel  and 
cargo  with  a  single  company  or  man  the  owner 
puts  his  case  before  Lloyd's,  and  any  member  can 
then  write  his  name  underneath  for  any  reason- 
able part  of  the  risk.  The  modem  'underwriter,' 
all  the  world  over,  is  the  direct  descendant  of  the 
Elizabethan  who  wrote  his  name  under  the  con- 
ditions of  a  given  risk  at  sea. 

Joint-stock  companies  were  in  one  sense  old 
when  Elizabethan  men  of  business  were  young. 
But  the  Elizabethans  developed  them  mormously. 
'Going  shares*  was  doubtless  prelii8ti»i&  R 
certainly  was  ancient,  mediseval,  and  EliufetllMM. 
But  those  who  formeriy  went  shares  gOHndly 
knew  each  other  and  something  of  the  kvamM 
too.  The  favorite  number  of  total  abmm  wm 
just  sixteen.  There  were  sixteen  land-alnRs  ia 
a  Celtic  household,  sixteen  shares  in  "iiiitiyi 
vessels  not  individually  owned,  sixteen  shares  in 
the  theatre  by  which  Shakespeare  'made  his  ^k.' 
But  sixteenths,  and  even  hundredths,  were  put 
out  of  date  when  speculation  on  the  grander 
scale  began  and  the  area  of  investment  grew. 
The  New  River  Company,  for  supplying  London 
with  water,  had  only  a  few  shares  then,  as  it  con- 
tinued to  have  down  to  our  own  day,  when  they 


62  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

stood  at  over  a  thousand  times  par.  The  Ulster 
'Plantation*  in  Ireland  was  more  remote  and 
appealed  to  more  investors  and  on  wider  grounds 
—  sentimental  grounds,  both  good  and  bad, 
included.  The  Virginia  'Plantation*  was  still 
more  remote  and  risky  and  appealed  to  an  ever- 
increasing  number  of  the  speculating  public. 
Many  an  investor  put  money  on  America  in  much 
the  same  way  as  a  factory  hand  to-day  puts 
money  on  a  horse  he  has  never  seen  or  has  never 
heard  o!  otherwise  than  as  something  out  of  which 
a  lot  of  easy  money  can  be  made  provided  luck 
holds  good. 

The  modon  prospectus  was  also  in  full  career 
under  Elizabeth,  who  probably  had  a  hand  in 
concocting  some  of  the  most  important  specimens. 
Lord  Bacon  wrote  one  dracribing  the  advantages 

of  the  Newfoundland  fisheries  in  terms  which  no 
promoter  of  the  present  day  could  better.  Every 
type  of  prospectuii  was  tried  on  the  investing 

public,  some  genuine,  many  doubtful,  others  as 
outrageous  in  their  impositions  on  human  credulity 
as  anything  produced  in  our  own  times.  The 
company-promoter  was  abroad,  in  London,  on 
'Change,  and  at  court.  What  with  royal  favor, 
iocial  prestige,  general  prosperity,  the  new  na- 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  6S 

tional  eagerness  to  find  vent  for  surplus  com- 
modities, and,  above  all,  the  spirit  of  speculation 
fanned  into  flame  by  the  real  and  fabled  wonders 
of  America,  what  with  all  this  the  investing  public 
could  take  its  choice  of  'going  the  limit'  in  a  hun- 
dred different  and  most  alluring  ways.  England 
was  surprised  at  her  own  investing  wealth.  The 
East  India  Company  raised  eight  million  dollars 
with  ease  from  a  thousand  shareholders  and  paid 
a  first  dividend  of  87j^  per  cent.  Spices,  pearls, 
and  silks  came  pouring  into  London;  and  English 
goods  found  vent  increasingly  abroad. 

Vastly  expanding  busmess  opportunities  of 
course  produced  the  spirit  of  the  trust  —  and  of 
very  much  the  same  sort  of  trust  that  Americans 
think  so  ultra-modern  now.  Monopolies  granted 
by  the  Crown  and  the  volcanic  forces  of  widespread 
speculation  prevented  some  of  the  abuses  of  the 
trust.  But  there  were  Elizabethan  trusts,  for 
all  that,  though  many  a  promising  scheme  fell 
through.  The  Feltmakers'  Hat  Trust  is  a  case 
in  point.  They  proposed  buying  up  all  the  hats 
in  the  market  so  as  to  oblige  all  dealers  to  depend 
upon  one  central  warehouse.  Of  course  they 
issued  a  prospectus  showing  how  everyone  con- 
cerned would  benefit  by  this  benevolent  plan. 


64  ELIZABFTHAK  SEA-DOGS 


Ben  Jonsun  and  other  playwrights  w«  re  quick  to 
seize  the  salient  abstirdtties  of  such  an  advertise- 
ment. In  The  Staple  of  Neva  Jonson  proposed 
a  News  Trust  to  collect  all  the  news  oi  tiie  world, 
comer  it,  classify  it  into  authentic,  apocryphal, 
barber's  gossip,  and  so  forth,  and  then  »cll  'c, 
for  the  sole  benefit  oi  the  consumer,  in  lengths  to 
suit  all  purduuers.  In  The  Dmril  is  an  A*i  be  b 
a  little  more  outspdcen. 

We'll  take  in  citizens,  commoners,  and  aldermen 
To  bear  the  charge,  and  blow  them  off  again 
Like  so  many  dead  flies.  .  .  . 

This  was  exactly  what  was  at  that  very  moment 
being  done  in  the  case  of  the  Alum  Trust.  All 
the  leading  characters  of  much  more  modern 
times  were  there  already;  Fitzuottrcll,  ready  to 
sell  his  estates  in  order  to  become  His  Grace  the 
Duke  of  Drown'dland,  Gilthead,  the  London 
moneylender  who  'lives  by  finding  foob,'  and  My 
Lady  Tailbush,  who  pulls  the  tocial  wires  at  court. 
And  so  the  game  went  on,  usually  with  the  result 
explained  by  Shakeq>eare*s  fisherman  in  P$ndu: 

*1  marvel  how  the  fishes  live  in  the  sea' — 
'Why,  as  men  do  a-laud:  the  great  ones  eat  up  the 
little  ones.' 


EMZABETHAN  ENGLAND  05 
The  Newcastle  coal  trade  grew  into  something 
very  like  a  modern  American  trust  with  the  ad- 
ditional arlvantuge  of  an  authorized  goveinment 
monopoly  so  long  as  the  agreed-upon  duty  was 
paid.  Then  there  was  the  Starch  Monopoly, 
a  very  profitable  one  because  starch  was  a  new 
delight  which  loon  enabled  Elizabethan  fops  to 
wear  ruffed  collars  big  enough  to  make  their 
heads  — as  one  irreverent  satirist  exclaimed  — 
•look  like  John  Baptist's  on  a  platter.' 

But  America?  Could  not  Am«ica  defeat  the 
machinations  of  all  monopolies  and  otiier  trusts? 
Wasn't  America  the  land  of  actual  gold  and  sflver 
where  there  was  plenty  of  room  for  everyone? 
There  soon  grew  up  a  wild  belief  that  you  could 
tap  America  for  precious  metals  almost  as  its 
Indians  tapped  maple  trees  for  sugar.  The 
•Mountains  of  Bright  Stones'  were  surely  there. 
Peru  and  Mexico  were  nothing  to  these.  Only 
find  them,  and  'get -rich-quick'  would  be  the 
order  of  the  day  for  every  true  adventurer.  These 
mountains  moved  about  in  men's  imaginations 
and  on  prospectors'  maps,  always  ahead  of  the 
latest  pioneer,  somewhere  behind  the  Back  of 
Beyond.  They  and  their  glamour  died  hard. 
Even  that  staid  gwgrapher  of  a  kter  day,  Thos. 


MICROCOPY  RESOLUTION  TEST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


^    /IPPLIED  INA^GE  Inc 

'6b3  Eqs!  M.J '1  Street 
Rochester,  Ne«  York      U609  USA 
gS      1,716)  482  -  0300  -  Phone 
(716)  288  -  5989  -  Fax 


66  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

J^Freys,  added  to  his  standard  atlas  of  America, 
in  1760,  this  item  of  information  on  the  far 
Northwest:  Hereabouts  are  supposed  to  be  the 
Mountains  of  Bright  Stones  mentioned  in  the  Map 
of  y  Indian  Ochagach. 

Speculation  of  the  wildcat  kind  was  bad.  But 
it  was  the  seamy  side  of  a  praiseworthy  spirit  of 
enterprise.  Monopoly  seems  worse  than  specula- 
tion. And  so,  in  many  ways,  it  was.  But  we 
must  judge  it  by  the  custom  of  its  age.  It  was 
often  unjust  and  generally  obstructive.  But  it 
did  what  neither  the  national  government  nor 
joint-stock  companies  had  yet  learnt  to  do. 
Monopoly  went  by  court  favor,  and  its  rights  were 
often  scandalously  let  and  sometimes  sublet  as 
well.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  Queen,  the  court, 
and  the  country  really  meant  business,  and  mo- 
nopolists had  either  to  deliver  the  goods  or  get 
out.  Monopolists  sold  dispensations  from  un- 
workable laws,  which  was  sometimes  a  good  thing 
and  sometimes  a  bad.  They  sold  licenses  for 
indulgence  in  forbidden  pleasures,  not  often 
harmless.  They  thought  out  and  collected  all 
kinds  of  indirect  taxation  and  had  to  face  all  the 
troubles  that  confront  the  framers  of  a  tariff  policy 
to-day.    Most  of  all,  however,  in  a  rough-and- 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  67 
ready  way  they  set  a  sort  of  Civil  Service  going 
They  served  as  Boards  of  Trade,  Departments 
of  the  Interior,  Customs,  Inland  Revenue,  and  so 
forth.  What  Crown  and  ParKament  either  could 
not  or  would  not  do  was  farmed  out  to  monopolists. 
Like  speculation  the  system  worked  both  ways, 
and  frequently  for  evil.  But,  like  the  British 
constitution,  though  on  a  lower  plane,  it  worked. 

A  monopoly  at  home —  like  those  which  we 
have  been  considering  -  was  endurable  because 
It  was  a  working  compromise  that  suited  existing 
circumstances  more  or  less,  and  that  could  be 
either  mended  or  ended  as  time  went  on.   But  a 
general  foreign  monopoly -like  Spain's  monopoly 
of  America— was  quite  unendurable.    Could  Spain 
not  only  hold  what  she  had  discovered  and  was  ex- 
ploiting but  also  extend  her  sphere  of  influence  over 
what  she  had  not  discovered?   Spain  said  Yes. 
England  said  No.    The  Spaniards  looked  for  trib- 
ute.   The  English  looked  for  trade.    In  govern- 
ment,  in  religion,  in  business,  in  everything,  the  two 
great  rivals  were  irrecondUibly  opposed.   Thus  the 
lists  were  set;  and  sea-dog  battles  followed. 


Elizabeth  was  an  exceedingly  able  woman  of 
business  and  was  practicaUy  president  of  aU  the 


68  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

great  joint-stock  companies  engaged  in  oversea 
trade.  WTierever  a  cargo  could  be  bought  or 
sold  there  went  an  English  ship  to  buy  or  sell  it. 
Whenever  the  authorities  in  foreign  parts  tried 
discrimination  against  English  men  or  English 
goods,  the  English  sea-dogs  growled  and  showed 
their  teeth.  And  if  the  foreigners  persisted,  the 
sea-dogs  bit  them. 

Elizabeth  was  extravagant  at  court;  but  not 
without  state  irotives  for  at  least  a  part  of  her 
extravagance.  A  brilliant  court  attracted  the 
upper  classes  into  the  orbit  of  the  Crown  while  it 
impressed  the  whole  country  with  the  sovereign's 
power.  Courtiers  favored  with  monopolies  had 
to  spend  their  earnings  when  the  state  was  threat- 
ened. And  might  not  the  Queen's  vast  profusion 
of  jewelry  be  turned  to  account  at  a  pinch? 
Elizabeth  could  not  afford  to  be  generous  when 
she  was  young.  She  grew  to  be  stingy  when  she 
was  old.  But  she  saved  the  state  by  sound 
finance  as  well  as  by  arms  in  spite  of  all  her  pomps 
and  vanities.  She  had  three  thousand  dresses, 
and  gorgeous  ones  at  that,  during  the  course  of 
her  reign.  Her  bathroom  was  wainscoted  with 
Venetian  mirrors  so  that  she  could  see  *nine-and- 
ninety*  reflections  of  her  veiy  comely  person  as 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  69 

she  dipped  and  splashed  or  dried  her  royal  skm. 

She  set  a  hot  pace  for  all  the  votaries  of  dress  to 
follow.  All  kinds  of  fashions  came  in  from  abroad 
with  the  rush  of  new-found  wealth;  and  so,  in- 
stead of  being  sanely  beautiful,  they  soon  became 
insanely  bizarre.  'An  Englishman,'  says  Harri- 
son, 'endeavouring  to  write  of  our  attire,  gave 
over  his  travail,  and  only  drew  the  picture  of  a 
naked  man,  since  he  could  find  no  kind  of  garment 
that  could  please  him  any  whiles  together. 

I  am  an  English  man  and  naked  I  stand  here, 
Musing  in  my  mind  what  raiment  I  shall  were; 
For  now  I  will  were  this,  and  now  I  will  were  that; 
And  now  I  .vill  were  I  cannot  tell  what. 

Except  you  see  a  dog  in  a  doublet  you  shall  not 
see  any  so  disguised  as  are  my  countrymen  of 
England.  Women  also  do  far  exceed  the  light- 
ness of  our  men.  What  shall  I  say  of  their  galli- 
gascons  to  bear  out  their  attire  and  make  it  fit 
plum  round?'  But  the  wives  of  'citizens  and 
burgesses, '  like  all  nouveaux  riches,  were  still  more 
bizarre  than  the  courtiers.  'They  cannot  tell 
when  or  how  to  .make  an  end,  being  women  in 
whom  all  kind  of  curiosity  is  to  be  seen  in  far 
greater  measure  than  in  women  of  higher  calling. 


70  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

I  might  name  hues  devised  for  the  nonce,  ver 
d'oye  'twixt  green  and  yallov/,  peas-porridge  tawny, 
popinjay  blue,  and  the  Devil-in-the-head. ' 

Yet  all  this  crude  absurdity,  'from  the  courtier 
to  the  carter,'  was  the  glass  reflecting  the  constantly 
increasing  sea-borne  trade,  ever  pushing  farther 
afield  under  the  stimulus  and  protection  of  the 
sea-dogs.  And  the  Queen  took  precious  good 
care  that  it  all  paid  toll  to  her  treasury  through 
the  customs,  so  that  she  could  have  more  monv 
to  build  more  ships.  And  if  her  courtiers  did  stuff 
their  breeches  out  with  sawdust,  she  took  equally 
good  care  that  each  fighting  man  among  them 
donned  his  uniform  and  raised  his  troops  or  fitted 
out  his  ships  when  the  time  was  ripe  for  action. 


CHAPTER  V 


HAWKIIT?  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS 

Said  Francis  I  of  France  to  Charles  V,  King 
of  Spain:  *Your  Majesty  and  the  King  of 
Portugal  have  divided  the  world  between  you, 
offering  no  pait  of  it  to  me.  Show  me,  I  pray 
you,  the  will  of  our  father  Adam,  so  that  I  may 
see  if  he  has  really  made  you  his  only  univer- 
sal heirs!*  Then  Francis  sent  out  the  Italian 
navigator  Verrazano,  who  first  explored  the 
coast  from  Florida  to  Newfoundland.  Afterwards 
Jacques  Cartier  discovered  the  St.  Lawrence; 
Frenchmen  took  Havana  twice,  plundered  the 
Spanish  treasure-ships,  and  tried  to  found  colo- 
nies —  Catholic  in  Canada,  Protestant  m  Florida 
and  Brazil. 

Thus,  at  the  time  when  Elizabeth  ascended  the 
throne  of  England  in  1558,  there  was  a  long- 
established  New  Spain  extending  over  Mexico, 
the  West  Indies,  and  most  of  South  America; 

71 


78  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

a  amall  New  Portugal  confined  to  part  of  Brazil: 
and  a  shadowy  Ne^r  France  running  vaguely 
inland  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  nowhere 
effectively  occupied,  and  mostly  overlapping 
prior  English  claims  based  on  the  discoveries  of 
the  Cabots. 

>gland  and  France  had  often  been  enemies. 

.and  and  Spain  had  just  been  allied  in  a  war 
against  France  as  well  as  by  the  marriage  of  Philip 
and  Mary.  William  Ilawkin  had  traded  with 
Portuguese  Brazil  under  Henry  VIII,  as  the 
Southampton  '  chants  were  to  do  later  on. 
English  merchants  lived  in  Lisbon  and  Cadiz; 
a  few  were  even  settled  m  New  Spain;  and  a 
friendly  Spaniard  had  been  so  delighted  by  the 
prospective  union  of  the  English  with  the  Spanish 
crown  that  he  had  given  the  name  of  Londres 
(London)  to  a  new  settlement  in  tV.  *r  ?ntine 
Andes. 

Presently,  however,  Elizabethan  Engi^nd  began 
to  part  company  with  Spain,  to  become  more 
anti-Papal,  to  sympathize  with  Huguenots  and 
other  heretics,  and,  like  Francis  I,  to  wonder  why 
an  immense  new  world  should  be  nothing  but 
New  Spain.  Besides,  Englishmen  knew  what 
the  rest  of  Europe  knew,  that  the  discovery  of 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TBADERS  78 

Potod  had  put  out  ci  bunness  neariy  all  the  (Xd- 
World  silver  mines,  and  that  the  Burgundian 
Ass  (as  Spanish  treasure-mules  weie  called,  from 
Charles's  love  of  Burgundy)  had  mabled  Spain 
to  make  conquests,  impose  her  wiU  on  her  neigh- 
bors, and  keep  paid  spies  in  every  fordgn  court, 
the  English  court  included.  Londoners  had  seen 
Spanish  gold  and  silver  paraded  through  the 
streets  when  Philip  married  Mary  —  '27  chests 
of  bullion,  99  horseloads  +  2  cartloads  of  gold  and 
silver  coin,  and  97  boxes  full  of  silver  bars!' 
Moreover,  the  Holy  Inquisition  was  making 
Spanish  seaport;  pretty  hot  for  heretics.  In 
1562,  twenty-six  English  subjects  were  burnt  alive 
in  Spain  itself.  Ten  times  as  many  were  in  prison. 
No  wonder  sea-dogs  were  straining  at  the  leash. 

Neither  Philip  nor  Elizabeth  wanted  war  just 
then,  though  each  enjoyed  a  thrust  at  the  other 
by  any  kind  of  fighting  short  of  that,  and  though 
each  winked  at  all  kinds  of  armed  trade,  such  as 
privateering  and  even  downright  piracy.  The 
English  and  Spanish  merchants  had  commerdal 
connections  going  back  for  centuries;  and  busi- 
ness men  on  both  sides  were  always  ready  to  do 
a  good  stroke  for  themselves. 

This  was  the  stat**  of  affairs  in  1562  when  young 


74  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Jdin  Hawkins,  son  of  'Olde  Master  Wmiam/ 
went  into  tiie  slave  trade  with  New  Spain.  Ex- 
cept for  the  fact  that  both  Portugal  and  Spun 
allowed  no  trade  with  their  oversea  possessions 

in  any  ships  but  their  own,  the  circumstances 
appeared  to  favor  his  enterprise.  The  AriKTican 
Indians  were  withering  away  before  the  atrocious 
cruelties  of  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards,  being 
either  killed  in  battle,  used  up  in  merciless  slavery, 
or  driven  off  to  alien  wilds.  Already  the  Portu- 
guese had  commenced  to  import  negroes  from  their 
West  African  possessions,  both  for  themselves 
and  for  trade  with  the  Spaniards,  who  had  none. 
Brazil  prospered  beyond  expectation  and  absorbed 
all  the  blacks  that  Portuguese  shipping  could 
supply.  The  Spaniards  had  no  spare  tonnage  at 
the  time. 

John  Hawkins,  aged  thirty,  had  made  sevoral 
trips  to  the  Canaries.  He  now  formed  a  joints 
stock  company  to  trade  with  the  Spaniards  farther 
off.  Two  Lord  Mayors  of  London  and  the  Treas- 
urer of  the  Royal  Navy  were  among  the  subscrib- 
ers. Three  small  vessels,  with  only  two  hundred 
and  sixty  tons  between  them,  formed  the  flotilla. 
The  crews  numbered  just  a  hundred  men.  *At 
Teneriffe  he  received  friendly  treatment.  From 


0/Jt  jrOffAT  B4WKIS8 


Ij|tl»N«w  YorkI^|filieLib«r• 


,*V 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  75 
thence  he  passed  to  Sierra  Leona,  where  he  stayed 
a  good  time,  and  got  into  his  possession,  partly 
by  the  sword  and  partly  by  other  means,  to  the 
number  of  300  Negroes  at  the  least,  besides  other 
merchandises.  .  .  .   With  this  prey  he  saUed 
over  the  ocean  sea  unto  the  island  of  Hispaniola 
[Hayti]  .  .  .  and  here  he  had  reasonable  utterance 
[sale]  of  his  English  commodities,  as  also  of  some 
part  of  his  Negroes,  trusting  the  Spaniards  no 
further  than  that  by  his  own  strength  he  was 
able  still  to  master  them.'   At  'Monte  Christi, 
another  port  on  the  north  side  of  Hispaniola  .  .  . 
he  made  vent  of  [sold]  the  whole  number  of  his 
Negroes,  for  which  he  received  by  way  of  ex- 
change such  a  quantity  of  merchandise  that  he 
did  not  only  lade  his  own  three  ships  with  hides, 
ginger,  sugars,  and  some  quantity  of  pearls,  but 
he  freighted  also  two  other  hulks  with  hides  and 
other  like  commodities,  which  he  sent  into  Spain,' 
where  both  hulks  and  hides  were  confiscated  as 
being  contraband. 

Nothing  daunted,  he  wa«  off  again  in  1564  with 
four  ships  and  a  hundred  and  seventy  men.  This 
time  Elizabeth  herself  took  shares  and  lent  the 
Jesus  of  Luhech,  a  vessel  of  seven  hundred  tons 
which  Henry  VHI  had  bought  for  the  navy. 


76  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Nobody  questioned  slavery  in  those  days.  The 
great  Spanish  missionary  Las  Casas  denounced 
the  Spanish  atrocities  against  the  Indians.  But 
he  thought  negroes,  who  could  be  domesticated, 
would  do  as  substitutes  for  Indians,  who  could 
not  be  domesticated.  The  Indians  withered  at 
the  white  man's  touch.  The  negroes,  if  properly 
treated,  throve,  and  were  safer  than  among  their 
enemies  at  home.  Such  was  the  argument  for 
slavery;  and  it  was  true  so  far  as  it  went.  The 
argument  against,  on  the  score  of  ill  treatment, 
was  only  gradually  heard.  On  the  score  of  general 
human  rights  it  was  never  heard  at  all. 

'At  departmg,  in  cutting  the  foresail  lashings  a 
marvellous  misfortime  happened  to  one  of  the 
officers  in  the  ship,  who  by  the  pulley  of  the 
sheet  was  slain  out  of  hand.'  Hawkins  'ap- 
pointed all  the  masters  of  his  ships  an  Order  for 
the  keeping  of  good  company  in  this  manner:  — 
The  small  ships  to  be  always  ahead  and  aweather 
of  the  Jesus,  and  to  speak  twice  a-day  with  the 
Jesus  at  least.  ...  If  the  weather  be  extreme, 
that  Ihe  small  ships  cannot  keep  company  with 
the  Jesus,  then  all  to  keep  company  with  the 
Solomon.  ...  If  any  happen  to  any  misfortune, 
then  to  show  two  lights,  and  to  shoot  oflf  a  piece 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  77 

of  ordnance.  If  any  lose  company  and  come  in 
sight  again,  to  make  three  yaws  [zigzags  in  their 
course]  and  strike  the  mizzen  three  times,  serve 

GOD  DAILY.  LOVE  ONE  ANOTHER.  PRESERVE 
YOUR  VICTUALS.    BEWABB  OP  nBB,  AND  KEEP 

GOOD  COMPANY.' 

John  Sparke,  the  chronicler  of  this  second  voy- 
age, was  full  of  curiosity  over  every  strange  sight 
he  met  with.  He  was  also  blessed  with  the  pen  of 
a  ready  writo*.  So  we  get  a  story  that  is  more 
vivacious  than  Hakluyt's  retelling  of  the  first 
voyage  or  Hawkins's  own  accoimt  of  the  third. 
Sparke  saw  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  negroes, 
Caribs,  Indians,  alligators,  flying-fish,  flamingoes, 
pelicans,  and  many  other  strange  sights.  Having 
been  told  that  Florida  was  full  of  miicoms  he  at 
once  concluded  that  it  must  also  be  full  of  lions; 
for  how  could  the  one  kind  exist  without  the  other 
kind  to  balance  it?  Sparke  was  a  soldier  who 
never  found  his  sea  1^.  But  his  diary,  besides 
its  other  merits,  is  particularly  interesting  as 
being  the  first  account  of  America  ever  written 
by  an  English  eye-witness. 

Hawkins  made  for  TeneriflFe  in  the  Canaries,  off 
the  west  of  Africa.  There,  to  everybody's  great 
'amaze,'  the  Spaniards  'appeared  levelling  of 


78  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

bases  [small  portable  cannon]  and  arquebuses, 
with  divers  others,  to  the  number  of  fourscore, 
with  halberds;  pikes,  swords,  and  targets.'  But 
when  it  was  found  that  Hawkins  had  been  taken 
for  a  privateer,  and  when  it  is  remembered  that 
four  hundred  privateering  vessels  —  English  and 
Huguenot  —  had  captured  seven  hundred  Span- 
ish prizes  during  the  previous  summer  of  1563, 
there  was  and  is  less  cause  for  'amaze.*  Once 
explanations  had  been  made,  'Peter  de  Ponte 
gave  Master  Hawkins  as  gentle  entertainment  as 
if  he  had  been  lus  own  brother.*  Peter  was  a 
trader  with  a  great  eye  for  the  main  chance. 

Sparke  was  lost  in  wonder  over  the  famous 
Arbol  Santo  tree  of  Ferro,  *by  the  dropping 
whereof  the  inhabitants  and  cattle  are  satisfied 
with  water,  for  othe:  watCx  they  have  none  on 
the  island.*  This  is  not  quite  the  traveller's 
tale  it  appears  to  be.  There  are  three  springs  on 
the  island  of  Teneriffe.  But  water  is  scarce,  and 
the  Arbol  Santo,  a  sort  of  gigantic  laurel  standing 
alone  on  a  rocky  ledge,  did  actually  supply  two 
cisterns,  one  for  men  and  the  other  for  cattle. 
The  morning  mist  condensing  on  the  innumerable 
smooth  leaves  ran  off  and  was  caught  in  suitable 
conduits. 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  79 

In  Africa  Hawkins  took  many  'Sapies  which 
do  inhabiv  about  Rio  Grande  [now  the  Jeba  River] 
which  do  jag  ^heir  flesh,  both  legs,  arms,  and  bodies 
as  workmanlike  as  a  jerkin-maker  with  us  pinketh 
a  jerkin.'  It  is  a  nice  question  whether  these 
Sapies  gained  or  lost  by  becoming  slaves  to 
white  men;  for  they  were  alread  >  slaves  to  black 
conquerors  who  used  them  as  meat  with  the  vege- 
tables they  forced  them  to  The  Sapies 
were  sleek  pacifists  v,ho  found  too  late  that  the 
warlike  Samboses,  who  inhabited  the  neighboring 
desert,  were  not  to  be  denied. 

*In  the  island  of  Sambul  i  we  found  almadies 
or  canoas,  which  are  made  of  one  piece  of  wood, 
digged  out  like  a  trough,  but  of  a  good  proportion, 
bemg  about  eight  yards  long  and  one  in  breadth, 
having  a  beak-head  and  a  sl?ni  very  proportion- 
ably  made,  and  on  the  outside  artificially  carved, 
and  painted  red  and  blue.'  Neither  almadie  nor 
canoa  is,  of  course,  an  African  word.  One  is 
Arabic  for  a  cradle  {el-mahd);  the  other,  from 
which  we  get  canoe,  is  what  the  natives  told 
Columbus  they  called  their  dugouts:  and  dug- 
out canoes  are  very  like  primitive  CTa  .  Tha* 
Sparke  was  the  first  man  to  record  in  English, 
from  actual  experience,  the  aboriginal  craft  whose 


80  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

name,  both  East  and  West,  was  suggested  to 
primeval  man  by  tli  idea  of  his  being  Hterally 
'rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep.' 

Hawkins  did  not  have  it  all  his  own  way  with 
the  negroes,  by  whom  he  once  lost  seven  of  his 
own  men  killed  ''nd  tw^enty-seven  wounded.  'But 
the  captain  in  a  singular  wise  maimer  carried 
himself  with  countenance  very  cheerful  outwardly, 
although  inwardly  his  heart  was  broken  in  pieces 
for  it;  done  to  this  end,  that  the  Portugals,  being 
with  him,  should  not  presume  to  resist  against 
him.*   After  losing  five  more  men,  who  w»e 
eaten  by  sharks,  Hawkins  shaped  his  course 
westward  with  a  good  cargo  of  negroes  and  'other 
merchandises.'    'Contrary  winds  and  some  tor- 
nados happened  to  us  very  ill.    But  the  Almighty 
God,  who  never  suffereth  His  elect  to  perish,  sent 
us  the  ordinary  Breeze,  which  never  left  us  till 
we  came  to  an  island  of  the  Cannibals'  (Caribs  of 
Dominica),  who.  by  the  by,  had  just  eaten  a 
shipload  of  Spaniards. 

Hawkins  found  the  Spanish  oflScials  determined 
to*  make  a  show  of  resisting  unauthorized  trade. 
But  when  'he  prepared  100  men  well  armed  with 
bows,  arrows,  arquebuses,  and  pikes,  with  which 
he  marched  townwards,'  the  offidab  let  the  sale 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  81 

of  blacks  go  on.    Hawkins  was  particularly  anx- 
ious to  get  rid  of  his  lean  negroes,'  who  might 
die  in  his  hands  and  become  a  dead  loss;  so  he 
used  the  'gunboat  argument'  to  good  eflect. 
Sparke  kept  his  eyes  open  for  side-shows  and  was 
deh'ghted  with  the  alligators,  which  he  called 
crocodiles,  perhaps  for  the  sake  of  the  crocodile 
tears.    *His  nature  is  to  cry  and  sob  like  a  Chris- 
tian to  provoke  his  prey  to  come  to  him;  and 
thereupon  came  this  proverf),  that  h  applied 
unto  women  when  they  weep,  lachrymce crocodtli.* 
From  the  West  Indies  Hawkins  made  for  Florida, 
which  was  then  an  object  of  exceptional  desire 
among  adventurous  Englishmen.   De  Soto,  one 
of  Pizarro's  lieutenants,  had  annexed  it  to  Spain 
and,  in  1539,  had  started  off  inland  to  discover 
the  supposed  Peru  of  North  America.  Three 
years  later  he  had  died  while  descending  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi.    Six  years  later  again,  the  first 
Spanish  missionary  in  Florida  'taking  upon  him 
to  persuade  the  people  to  subjection,  was  by  them 
taken,  and  his  skin  cruelly  pulled  over  his  ears, 
and  his  flesh  eaten.'    Hawkins's  men  had  fair 
warning  on  the  way;  for  'they,  being  ashore, 
found  a  dead  man,  dried  in  a  manner  wh<.!e,  with 
other  heads  and  bodies  of  men, '  apparently  smoked 


82  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

like  hams.  'But  to  return  to  our  purpose,'  adds 
the  indefatigable  Sparke,  *  the  captain  in  the  ship's 
pinnace  sailed  along  the  shore  and  went  into  every 
creek,  speaking  with  divers  of  the  Fhridians,  be- 
cause he  would  understand  where  the  Frenchmen 
inhabited.'  Finally  he  found  them  *in  the  river 
of  May  [now  St.  John's  River]  and  standing  in 
30  degrees  and  better.'  There  was  'great  store 
of  maize  and  mill,  and  grapes  of  great  bigness. 
Also  deer  great  plenty,  which  came  upon  the 
sands  before  them.' 

So  here  were  the  three  rivals  overlapping  again 
—  the  annexing  Spaniards,  the  would-be  coloniz- 
ing French,  and  the  persistently  trading  English. 
There  were,  however,  no  Spaniards  about  at  that 
time.  This  was  the  second  Huguenot  colony  in 
Florida.  Rene  de  Laudonniere  had  founded  it 
in  1564.  The  first  one,  founded  two  years  earlier 
by  Jean  Ribaut,  had  failed  and  Ribaut's  men  had 
deserted  the  place.  They  had  started  for  home 
in  1563,  had  suffered  terrible  hardships,  had  been 
picked  up  by  an  English  vessel,  and  taken,  some 
to  France  and  some  to  England,  where  the  court 
was  all  agog  about  the  wealth  of  Florida.  People 
said  there  were  mines  so  bright  with  jewels  that 
they  had  to  be  approached  at  night  lest  the  flash- 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  8S 

ing  light  should  strike  men  blind.  Florida  be- 
came proverbial;  and  Elizabethan  wits  made 

endless  fun  of  it.  Stolida,  or  the  land  of  fools, 
and  Sordidat  or  the  land  of  muck-worms,  were 
some  of  their  jetix  esprit.  Everj'one  was  'boimd 
for  Florida, '  whether  he  meant  to  go  there  or  not, 
despite  Spanish  spheres  of  influence,  the  native 
cannibals,  and  pirates  by  the  way. 

Hawkins,  on  the  contrary,  did  not  profess  to 
be  bound  for  Florida.  Nevertheless  he  arrived 
there,  and  probably  had  intended  to  do  so  from 
the  first,  for  he  took  with  him  a  Frenchman  who 
had  been  in  Ribaut's  colony  two  years  before,  and 
Sparke  significantly  says  that  'the  land  is  more 
than  any  [one]  king  Christian  is  able  to  inhabit' 
Howevw  this  may  be,  Hawkins  found  the  second 
French  colony  as  well  as  'a  French  ship  of  four- 
score ton,  and  two  pinnaces  of  fifteen  ton  apiece 
by  her  .  .  .  and  a  fort,  in  which  their  captain 
Monsieur  Laudonniere  was,  with  certain  soldiers 
therein.'  The  colony  had  not  been  a  success. 
Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at  when  we  remember 
that  most  of  the  'certain  soldiers'  were  ex-pirates, 
who  wanted  gold,  and  'who  would  not  take  the 
pains  so  much  as  to  fish  in  the  river  before  their 
doors,  but  would  have  all  things  put  in  their 


84  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

mouths.'  Eighty  of  the  original  two  hundred 
'went  a-roving'  to  the  Weit  Indies,  'where  they 
spoiled  the  Spaniards  .  .  .  and  were  of  sudi 
haughty  stomachs  that  they  thought  their  force 
to  be  such  that  no  man  durst  meddle  with  them. 
.  .  .  But  God  ...  did  indurate  their  hearts  in 
such  sort  that  they  lingered  so  long  that  a  [Span- 
ish] ship  and  galHasse  being  made  out  of  St. 
Domingo  .  .  .  took  twenty  of  them,  whereof  the 
most  part  were  hanged  .  .  .  and  twenty-five 
escaped  ...  to  Florida,  where  .  .  .  they  were 
put  into  prison  [by  Laudonni^re,  against  whom 
they  had  mutinied]  and  .  .  .  four  of  the  chiefest 
being  condemned,  at  the  request  of  the  soldiers 
did  pass  the  arquebusers,  and  then  were  hanged 
upon  a  gibbet.'  Sparke  got  the  delightful  ex- 
pr^ion  'at  the  request  of  the  soldiors  did  pass 
the  arquebusers'  from  a  'very  polite'  Frendunan. 
Could  any  one  tell  you  more  politely,  in  mistrans- 
lated language,  how  to  stand  up  and  be  shot? 

Sparke  was  greatly  taken  with  the  unknown 
art  of  smoking.  'The  Floridians  .  .  .  have  an 
herb  dried,  who,  with  a  cane  and  an  earthen  cup 
in  the  end,  with  fire  and  the  dried  herbs  put  to- 
gether, do  suck  through  the  cane  the  smoke 
thereof,  which  smoke  satisfieth  their  hunger, 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  85 

and  tbere?nth  they  live  four  or  five  days  without 
meat  or  drink.  And  this  all  the  Frenchmen 
used  for  this  purpose;  yet  do  they  hold  opinion 
withal  that  it  causeth  water  and  steam  to  void  from 
their  stomachs.'  The  other  'commodities  of  the 
land '  were  '  more  than  are  yet  known  to  any  man.  * 
But  Hawkins  was  bent  on  trade,  not  colonizing. 
He  sold  the  Tiger,  a  barque  of  fifty  tons,  to  Lau- 
donni^e  for  seven  hundred  crowns  and  sailed 
north  on  the  first  voyage  ever  made  along  the 
coast  of  the  United  States  by  an  all-English  crew. 
Turning  east  off  Newfoundland  'with  a  good 
large  wind,  the  20  September  [1565]  we  came  to 
Padstow,  in  Cotmwall,  God  be  thanked!  in  safety, 
with  the  loss  of  twenty  persons  in  all  the  voyage, 
and  with  great  profit  to  the  v^turers,  as  also  to 
the  whole  realm,  in  bringing  home  both  gold, 
silver,  pearls,  and  other  jewels  great  store.  His 
name,  therefore,  be  praised  for  evermore.  Amen.  * 
Hawkins  was  now  a  rich  man,  a  favorite  at 
court,  and  qmte  the  rage  in  London.  The  Queen 
was  very  gracious  and  granted  him  the  well- 
known  coat  of  arms  with  the  crest  of  'a  demi- 
Moor,  bound  and  captive*  in  honor  of  the  great 
new  English  slave  trade.  The  Spanish  ambas- 
sador met  him  at  court  and  asked  him  to  dinner. 


86  EUZABETIIAN  SEA-DOGS 

over  the  wine,  Hawkins  assured  him  that 
he  was  going  out  again  next  year.  Meanwhile, 
however,  the  famous  Captain-Cleneral  of  the 
Indian  trade,  Don  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles, 
the  best  naval  oflScer  that  Spain  perhaps  has 
ever  had,  swooped  down  on  the  French  in  Florida, 
killed  them  all,  and  built  the  fort  of  St.  Augustine 
to  guard  the  'Mountains  of  Bright  Stones'  some- 
where in  the  hinterland.  News  of  thia  slaughter 
soon  arrived  at  Madrid,  whence  orders  presently 
went  out  to  have  an  eye  on  Hawkins,  whom 
Spanish  oflSdak  thencefrr^h  retarded  as  the 
leading  mterloper  in  New  Spain. 

Nevertheless  Hawkins  set  out  on  his  third  and 
very  'troublesome'  voyage  in  1567,  backed  by 
all  his  old  and  many  new  supporters,  and  with  a 
flotilla  of  six  vessels,  the  Jesus,  the  Minion  (which 
then  meant  darling),  the  William  and  John,  the 
Jvditk,  the  Angel,  and  the  Swallow.  Thia  was 
the  voyage  that  began  those  twenty  years  of 
sea-dog  fighting  which  rose  to  their  zenith  in  the 
battle  against  the  Armada,  and  with  this  voyage 
Drake  himself  steps  on  the  stage  as  captaLa  of 
the  Judith. 

There  had  been  a  hitch  in  1566,  for  the  Spanish 
ambassador  has  reported  Hawkins's  after-dinner 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TBADEBS  87 
speech  lo  his  king.  Philip  had  protested  to  £Iis». 
beth,  and  Elizabeth  had  con  ulted  with  Cecil, 
afterwards  'the  great  Lord  Burleigh,'  .ncestor 
of  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  British  Prime 
Minister  during  the  Spanish-American  War  of 
1898.  The  result  was  that  orders  went  down  to 
Plymouth  stopping  Hawkins  and  binding  him 
over,  in  o  bond  of  five  hundred  pounds,  to  keep 
the  peace  with  Her  Majesty's  right  good  friend 
King  Philip  of  Spain.  But  in  1567  times  had 
changed  again,  and  Hawkins  sailed  with  colors 
flying,  for  Elizabeth  was  now  as  ready  to  hurt 
Philip  as  he  was  to  hurt  her,  provided  always 
that  open  war  was  carefully  avoided. 

But  this  time  things  went  wrong  from  the  first 
A  tremendous  autumnal  storm  scattered  the  ships. 
Then  the  first  nerroes  that  Hawkins  tried  to 
'snare'  proved  to  be  ke  that  other  kind  of  prey 
of  which  the  sarcastic  Frenchman  wrote:  'This 
animal  is  very  wicked;  when  you  attack  it,  it 
defends  itself,'  The  'envenomed  arrows'  of 
the  negroes  worked  the  mischief.  'There  hardly 
escaped  any  that  had  blood  drawn  of  them,  but 
died  in  strange  sort,  with  their  mouths  shut  some 
ten  days  before  they  died.'  Hawkins  himself 
was  wounded,  but,  'thanks  be  to  God,'  escaped 


88  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

the  lockjaw.  After  this  the  English  took  sides 
in  a  native  war  and  captured  *250  persons,  men, 
women,  and  children,*  while  their  friend  the  King 
captured  '600  prisoners,  whereof  we  hoped  to 
have  had  our  choice.  But  the  negro,  in  which 
nation  is  seldom  or  never  found  truth,  that  night 
removed  his  camp  and  prisoners,  so  that  we  were 
fain  to  content  ourselves  with  those  few  we  had 
gotten  ourselves. ' 

However,  with  'between  400  and  500  negroes,' 
Hawkins  crossed  over  from  Africa  to  the  West 
Indies  and  'coasted  from  place  to  place,  making 
our  traffic  with  the  Spaniards  as  we  might,  some- 
what hardly,  because  the  King  had  straitly  com- 
manded all  his  governors  by  no  means  to  suffer 
any  trade  to  be  made  with  us.  Notwithstanding, 
we  had  reasonable  trade,  and  courteous  enter- 
tainment' for  a  good  part  of  the  way.   In  Rio  de 
la  Hacha  the  Spaniards  received  the  English 
with  a  volley  that  killed  a  couple  of  men,  where- 
upon the  English  smashed  in  the  gates,  while  the 
Spaniards  retired.   But,  afta  this  little  bit  of 
punctilio,  trade  went  on  under  cover  of  night  so 
briskly  that  two  hundred  negroes  were  sold 
at    good    prices.   Prom    there    to  Cartagena 
'the  inhabitants  were  glad  of  us  and  traded 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  80 

willingly,'  supply  being  short  and  demand  extra 
high. 

Then  came  a  real  rebuff  from  the  governor  of 
Cartagena,  followed  by  a  tmific  storm  'which  so 
beat  the  Jesm  that  we  cut  down  all  her  higher 
buildings'  (deck  superstructures).  Then  the 
course  was  shaped  for  Florida.  But  a  new  storm 
drove  the  battered  flotilla  back  to  'the  port  which 
serveth  the  city  of  Mexico,  called  St.  John  de 
Ulua,'  the  modern  Vera  Cruz.  The  historic  Vera 
Cruz  was  fifteen  miles  north  of  this  harbor. 
Here  'thinking  us  to  be  the  fleet  of  Spai  n,  the 
chief  oflScers  of  the  country  came  aboard  us. 
Which,  being  deceived  of  their  expectation,  were 
greatly  dismayed;  but  .  .  .  when  they  saw  our 
demand  was  nothing  but  victuals,  were  recom- 
forted.  I  [for  it  is  Hawkms's  own  story]  found  in 
the  same  port  12  ships  which  had  in  them  by 
report  £200,000  in  gold  and  silver,  all  which, 
being  m  my  possession  [t.  at  my  merpy]  with 
the  King's  Island  ...  I  set  at  liberty.* 

What  was  to  be  done?  Hawkins  had  a  hundred 
negroes  still  to  sell.  But  it  was  four  hundred 
miles  to  Mexico  City  and  back  again;  and  a  new 
Spanish  viceroy  was  aboard  the  big  Spanish  fleet 
that  was  daily  expected  to  arrive  in  this  very 


90  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

port  If  a  permit  to  sell  came  back  from  the 
capital  in  time,  well  and  good.   If  no  more  than 
time  to  replenish  stores  was  allowed,  good  enough, 
despite  the  loss  of  sales.   But  what  if  the  Spanish 
fleet  arrived?   The  'King's  Island'  was  a  low 
little  reef  right  in  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  which 
it  all  but  barred.     Moreover,  no  vessel  could 
live  through  a  northerly  gale  inside  the  harbor 
—  the  only  one  on  that  coast  —  up' ess  securely 
moored  to  the  island  itself.    Consequently  who- 
ever held  the  island  commanded  the  situation 
altogether. 

There  was  not  much  time  for  consultation; 
for  the  very  next  morning  'we  saw  open  of  the 
haven  13  great  ships,  the  fleet  of  Spain.*   It  was 
a  terrible  predicament.    'iVotc,  said  I,  /  am  in 
two  dangers,  and  forced  to  receive  ^  one  of  them. 
.  .  .  Either  I  must  have  kept  out  the  fleet,  which, 
with  God's  help,  I  was  very  well  able  to  do,  or 
else  suffer  them  to  enter  with  their  accustomed 
treason.  ...   If  I  had  kept  them  out,  then 
there  had  been  present  shipwreck  of  all  that  fleet, 
which  amounted  in  value  to  six  millions,  which 
was  in  value  of  our  money  £1,800,000,  which  I 
considered  I  was  not  able  to  answer,  fearing  the 
Queen's  Majesty's  indignation.  .  .  .    Thus  with 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TRADERS  91 
myself  revolving  the  doubts,  I  thought  better  to 
abide  the  jut  of  the  uncertainty  than  of  the  cer- 
tainty.' So,  after  conditions  had  been  agreed 
upon  and  hostages  exchanged,  the  thirteen  Span- 
ish ships  sailed  in.  The  little  island  remained  in 
English  hands;  and  the  Spaniards  were  profuse 
in  promises. 

J3ut,  having  secretly  made  their  preparations, 
the  Spaniards,  who  were  in  overwhelming  numbers, 
suddenly  set  upon  the  English  by  land  and  sea. 
Every  Englishman  ashore  was  killed,  except  a 
few  who  got  oflF  in  a  boat  to  the  Jesus.  The  Jesus 
and  the  Minim  cut  their  headfasts,  hauled  clear 
by  their  stemfasts,  drove  back  the  boarding 
parties,  and  engaged  the  Spanish  fleet  at  about  a 
hundred  yards.  Within  an  hour  the  Spanish 
flagship  and  another  were  sunk,  a  thmi  vessel 
was  bummg  fur  io?  sly,  fore  and  aft,  while  every 
English  deck  was  clear  of  enemies.  But  the 
Spaniards  had  swarmed  on  to  the  island  from  all 
sides  and  were  firing  mto  the  English  hulls  at 
only  a  few  feet  from  the  cannon's  mouth.  Haw- 
kins was  cool  as  ever.  Calling  for  a  tankard  of 
beer  he  drank  to  the  health  of  the  gunners,  who 
accounted  for  most  of  the  five  hundred  and  forty 
men  killed  on  the  Spanish  side,    'btand  by  your 


9i  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

ordnance  lustily,*  he  cried,  as  he  put  the  tankard 
down  and  a  round  diot  sent  it  flying.  'Grod  hath 
delivered  me,*  he  added,  *and  so  will  He  deliver 
you  from  these  traitors  and  villains.' 

The  masts  of  the  Jesus  went  by  the  board  and 
her  old,  strained  timbers  splintered,  loosened  up, 
and  were  stove  in  under  the  storm  of  cannon 
balls.  Hawkins  then  gave  the  order  to  abandon 
ship  after  taking  out  what  stores  they  could  and 
changing  her  berth  so  that  she  would  shield  the 
little  Minion.  But  whiic  this  desperate  manoeuvre 
was  being  executed  down  came  two  fire-ships. 
Some  of  the  Minion's  crew  then  lost  their  heads 
and  made  sail  so  quickly  that  Hawkins  himself 
was  nearly  left  behind. 

The  only  two  English  vessels  that  escaped  were 
the  Minion  and  the  Judiih.  When  nothing  else 
was  left  to  do,  Hawkins  shouted  to  Drake  to  lay 
the  JudUh  aboard  the  Miniont  take  in  all  the  men 
and  stores  he  could,  and  put  to  sea.  Drake, 
then  only  twenty-three,  did  this  with  consummate 
skill-  Hawkins  followed  some  time  after  and 
anchored  just  out  of  range.  But  Drake  had 
already  gained  an  offing  that  caused  the  two  little 
vessels  to  part  company  in  the  night,  during  which 
a  whole  gale  from  the  north  sprang  up,  threatening 


HAWKINS  AND  THE  FIGHTING  TBADEBS  9S 

to  put  the  Judith  on  a  lee  sliore.  Drake  there- 
fore fought  his  way  to  windward;  and,  seeing  no 
one  when  the  gale  abated,  and  having  barely 
enough  stores  to  make  a  friendly  land,  sailed 
straight  home.  Hawkins  reported  the  Judith, 
without  mentioning  Drake's  n&me,  as  'forsaking* 
the  Minion.  But  no  other  witness  thought 
Drake  to  blame. 

Hawkins  himself  rode  out  the  gale  under  the 
lee  of  a  little  island,  then  beat  about  for  two  weeks 
of  increasing  misery,  when  'hides  were  thought 
very  good  meat,  and  rats,  cats,  mice,  and  dogs, 
parrots  and  monkeys  that  were  got  at  great  price, 
none  escaped.  *  The  Minion  was  of  three  hundred 
tons;  and  so  was  insufferably  overcrowded  with 
three  hundred  men,  two  hundred  English  and  one 
hundred  negroes.  Drake's  little  Judith^  of  only 
fifty  tons,  could  have  given  no  rdi^,  as  she  was 
herself  overfull.  Hawkins  asked  all  the  men 
who  preferred  to  take  their  chance  on  land  to 
get  round  the  foremast  and  all  those  who  wanted 
to  remain  afloat  to  get  round  the  mizzen.  About 
a  hundred  chose  one  course  and  a  hundred  the 
other.  The  landing  took  place  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  south  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The 
shore  party  ne^Iy  all  died.   But  three  lived  to 


04  EimSETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

write  of  their  adventures.  David  Ingram,  fol- 
lowing Indian  trails  all  round  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
and  up  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  came  out  where 
St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  stands  now,  was  picked 
up  by  a  passing  Frenchman,  and  so  got  safely 
home.  Job  Hortop  and  Miles  Philips  were  caught 
by  the  Spaniards  and  sent  back  to  Mexico. 
Philips  escaped  to  England  fourteen  years  later. 
But  Hortop  was  sent  to  Spain,  where  he  served 
twelve  years  as  a  galley-slave  and  ten  as  a  servant 
before  he  contrived  to  get  aboard  an  English 
vessel. 

The  ten  Spanish  hostages  were  found  safe  and 
sound  aboard  the  Jesus;  though,  by  all  the  ndes 
of  war,  Hawkins  would  have  been  amply  justified 
in  killing  them.   The  English  hostages  were  kept 
fast  prisoners.   *If  all  the  miseries  of  this  sorrow- 
ful voyage,*  says  Hawkins's  report,  'should  be 
perfectly  written,  there  should  need  a  painful 
man  with  his  pen,  and  as  great  a  time  as  he  had 
that  wrote  the  lives  and  deaths  of  martyrs.* 
.  Thus,  in  complete  disaster,  ended  that  third 
voyage  to  New  Spain  on  which  so  many  hopes 
were  set.   And  with  this  disastrous  end  began 
those  twenty  years  of  sea-dog  rage  which  found 
their  satisfaction  against  the  Great  Armada. 


CHAPTER  VI 

drake's  BEGINNINa 


We  must  now  turn  back  for  a  moment  to  1545, 
the  year  in  which  the  Old  World,  after  the 
discovery  of  the  mines  of  Potosi,  first  awoke  to 
the  illimitable  riches  of  the  New;  the  year 
in  which  King  Henry  assembled  his  epoch- 
making  fleet;  the  year  too,  in  which  the  British 
National  Anthem  was,  so  to  say,  bom  at  sea, 
when  the  parole  throughout  the  waiting  fleet  was 
God  save  the  Kingl  and  the  answering  countersign 
was  Long  to  reign  over  ua! 

In  the  same  year,  at  Crowndale  by  Tavistock 
in  Devon,  was  born  Francis  Drake,  greatest  of 
sea-dogs  and  first  of  modem  admirals.  His 
father,  Edmund  Drake,  was  a  skipper  in  modest 
circumstances.  But  from  time  immemorial  there 
had  been  Drakes  all  round  the  countryside  of 
Tavistock  and  the  family  name  stood  high. 
Francis  was  called  after  his  godfather,  Francis 

95 


1^1 


If 


Oe  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Russell,  son  and  heir  of  Henry's  right-hand  re- 
forming peer,  Lord  Russell,  progenitor  of  the 
Dukes  of  Bedford  c^wn  to  the  present  day. 

Though  fortune  thus  seemed  to  smile  upon 
Drake's  cradle,  his  boyhood  proved  to  be  a  very 
stormy  one  indeed.    He  was  not  yet  five  when  the 
Protestant  zeal  of  the  Lord  Protector  Somerset 
stirred  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  West  Country 
into  an  insurrection  that  swept  the  anti-Paoal 
minority  before  it  like  flotsam  before  a  ^. 
Drake's  father  was  a  zealous  Protestant,  a  ,i. 
gospeller,*  much  given  to  preaching;  and  when  he 
was  cast  up  by  the  storm  on  what  is  now  Drake's 
Island,  just  off  Plymouth,  he  was  glad  to  take 
passage  for  Kent.    His  friends  at:  court  then 
made  him  a  sort  of  naval  chaplain  to  the  men  who 
took  care  of  His  Majesty's  ships  laid  up  in  Gilling- 
ham  Reach  on  the  River  Medway,  just  below 
where  Chatham  Dockyard  stands  to-day.  Here, 
in  a  vessel  too  old  for  service,  most  of  Drake's 
deven  brothers  were  born  to  a  life  as  nearly 
ajnphibious  as  the  life  of  any  boy  could  be.  The 
tide  runs  in  with  a  rush  from  the  sea  at  Sheemess, 
only  ten  miles  away;  and  so,  among  the  creeks 
and  marshes,  points  and  bends,  through  tortuous 
channels  and  hurrying  waters  lashed  by  the  keen 


DBAKE'S  BEGINNING  97 

east  wind  of  England,  Drake  reveled  in  the  kind  of 
playground  that  a  sea-dog's  son  should  have. 

During  the  reign  of  Mary  (1558-58)  'hot  gos- 
pellers' like  Drake's  father  were  of  course  turned 
out  of  the  Service.  And  so  young  Francis  had 
to  be  apprenticed  to  'the  master  of  a  bark,  which 
he  used  to  coast  along  the  shore,  and  sometimes 
to  carry  merchandise  into  Zeeland  and  France.' 
It  was  hard  work  and  a  rough  life  for  the  little 
lad  of  ten.  But  Drake  stuck  to  it,  and  'so  pleased 
the  old  man  by  his  industry  that,  being  a  bachelor, 
at  his  death  he  bequeathed  his  bark  unto  him  by 
will  and  testament. '  Moreover,  after  Elizabeth's 
accession,  Drake's  father  came  into  his  own.  He 
took  orders  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  in 
1561,  when  Francis  was  sixteen,  became  vicar 
of  Upchurch  on  the  Medway,  the  same  river  on 
which  his  boys  had  learned  to  live  amphibious 
lives. 

No  dreams  of  any  Golden  West  had  Drake 
as  yet.  To  the  boy  in  his  teens  Westward  Ho  I 
meant  nothing  more  than  the  usual  cry  of  Lon- 
don boatmen  touting  for  fares  up-stream.  But, 
before  he  went  out  with  Sir  John  Hawkins,  on 
the  'troublesome'  voyage  which  we  have  just 
followed,  he  must  have  had  a  foretaste  of  some- 


98  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

tiling  like  hii  future  raiding  of  the  Spanish  Main; 
for  the  Channel  swarmed  with  Protestant  priva- 
teers, no  gentler,  when  they  caught  a  Spaniard, 
than  Spaniards  were  when  they  caught  them. 
He  was  twenty-two  when  he  went  out  with  Haw- 
kins and  would  be  in  his  twenty-fourth  year  when 
he  returned  to  England  in  the  little  J udith  after 
the  murderous  Spanish  treachery  at  San  Juan  de 
Ulua. 

Just  as  the  winter  night  was  closing  in,  on  the 
20th  of  January,  1569,  the  Judith  sailed  into  Ply- 
mouth. Drake  landed.  William  Hawkins,  John's 
brother,  wrote  a  petition  to  the  Queen-in-G)uncil 
for  letters-of-marque  in  reprisal  for  Ulua,  and 
Drake  dashed  off  for  London  with  the  missive 
almost  before  the  mk  was  dry.   Now  it  happened 
that  a  Spanish  treasure  fleet,  carrying  money 
from  Italy  and  bound  for  Antwerp,  had  been 
driven  into  Plymouth  and  neighboring  ports  by 
Huguenot  privateers.   This  money  was  urgently 
needed  by  Alva,  the  very  capable  but  ruthless 
governor  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  who,  having 
just  drowned  the  rebellious  Dutch  in  blood,  was 
now  erecting  a  colossal  statue  to  himself  for 
having  '  extinguished  sedition,  chastised  rebellion. 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  M 
reitored  religioiit  secured  justice,  and  esteUished 
peace.'  The  Spanish  ambassad<Mr  theief(»e  ob- 
tained leave  to  bring  it  overland  to  Dover. 

But  no  sooner  had  Elisabeth  signed  the  order 
of  safe  conduct  than  in  came  Drake  with  the  news 
of  San  Juan  de  Ulua.    Elizabeth  at  once  saw  that 
all  the  English  sea-dogs  would  be  flaming  for 
revenge.    Everyone  saw  that  the  treasure  would 
be  safer  now  In  England  than  aboard  any  Spanish 
vessel  in  the  Channel.    So,  on  the  ground  that 
the  gold,  though  payable  to  Philip's  representa- 
tive in  Antwerp,  was  still  the  property  of  the 
Italian  bankers  who  advanced  it,  Elizabeth  sent 
'^'•ders  down  post-haste  to  commandeer  it.  The 
enraged  ambassador  advised  Alva  to  seize  every- 
thing English  in  the  Netherlands.    Elizabeth  i  i 
turn  seized  everything  Spanish  in  England. 
Elizabeth  now  held  the  diplomatic  trumps;  for 
existmg  treaties  provided  that  there  should  be 
no  reprisab  without  a  reasonable  delay;  and 
Alva  had  seized  English  property  before  giving 
Elizabeth  the  customary  time  to  explain. 

Jolm  Hawkins  entered  Plymouth  five  days 
later  than  Drake  and  started  for  London  with 
four  pack  horses  carrying  all  he  had  saved  from 
the  wreck.   By  the  irony  of  fate  he  travelled  up 


vi 

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1 


1: 


100         EUZA  ETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

to  town  in  the  rear  of  the  long  proceadon  that 
carried  the  commandeered  Spanish  gold. 

The  plot  thickened  fast;  for  England  was  now 
on  the  brink  of  war  with  France  over  the  secret 
aid  Englishmen  had  been  giving  to  the  Huguenots 
at  La  RochelU'.  But  suddenly  Elizabeth  was 
all  smile*  and  affability  for  France.  And  when 
her  two  great  merchant  fleets  put  out  to  sea,  one, 
the  wine-fli'el,  bound  for  La  Rochelle,  went  with 
only  a  small  naval  escort,  just  enough  to  keep 
the  pirates  off;  while  the  other,  the  big  wool- 
fleet,  usually  sent  to  Antwerp  but  now  bound  for 
Hamburg,  went  with  a  strong  fighting  escort  of 
regular  men-of-war. 

Aboard  this  escort  went  Francis  Drake  as  a 
lieutenant  in  the  lloyal  Navy.  Home  in  June, 
Drake  ran  down  to  Tavistock  in  Devon;  wooed, 
won,  and  married  pretty  Mary  Newman,  all 
within  a  month.  He  was  bade  on  duty  in  July. 

For  the  time  being  the  war  doud  passed  away. 
Elizabeth's  tortuous  diplomacy  had  succeeded, 
oVing  to  dissension  among  her  enemies.  In  the 
following  year  (1570)  the  international  situation 
was  changed  by  the  Pope,  who  issued  a  bull 
formally  deposing  Elizabeth  and  absolving  her 
subjects  from  their  allegiance  to  her.   The  French 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  lOI 
and  SfMUUih  momurchs  refused  to  publish  thia 
order  becauae  tbey  did  not  approve  of  depoaition 
by  the  Pope.  But,  for  all  that,  it  worked  againat 
Elisabeth  by  making  her  the  official  standing 
enemy  of  Rome.  At  the  same  time  it  worked 
for  her  among  the  sea-dogs  and  all  who  thought 
with  them.  'Tlie  case,'  said  Thomas  Fuller, 
author  of  The  Worthies  of  England,  'the  case  was 
clear  in  sea  dmnitie.*  Religious  zeal  and  com- 
mercial enterprise  went  hand  in  hand.  The  case 
was  clear;  and  the  English  navy,  now  mobilized 
and  ready  for  war,  made  it  much  clearer  still. 

Westward  Hot  in  chief  conunand,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five,  with  the  tiny  flotilla  of  the  Dragon 
and  the  Swan,  manned  by  as  good  a  lot  of  dare- 
devil experts  as  any  privateer  could  wish  to  see! 
Out  and  back  in  1570,  and  again  in  1571,  Drake 
took  rep  risals  on  New  Spain,  made  money  for 
all  hands  engaged,  and  gained  a  knowledge  of 
the  American  coast  that  stood  him  in  good  stead 
for  f utmre  expeditions. 

It  was  1572  when  Drake,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven,  sailed  out  of  Plymouth  on  the  Nombre  de 
Dios  expedition  that  brought  him  into  fame. 
He  led  a  Lilliputian  fleet:  the  Paxha  and  the 


102  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Swariy  a  hundred  tons  between  them,  with  seventy- 
three  men,  all  ranks  and  ratings,  aboard  of  them. 
But  both  vessels  were  'richly  furnished  with  vic- 
tuals and  apparels  for  a  whole  year,  and  no  less 
heedfully  provided  with  all  manner  of  ammunition, 
artillery  [which  then  meant  every  kind  of  firearm 
as  well  as  cannon],  artificers'  stuff  and  tools;  but 
especially  three  dainty  pinnaces  made  in  Ply- 
mouth, taken  asunder  all  in  pieces,  and  stowed 
aboard  to  be  sot  up  as  occasion  served. ' 

Without  once  striking  sail  Drake  made  the 
channel  between  Dominica  and  Martinique  in 
twenty-five  days  and  arrived  off  a  previously 
chosen  secret  harbor  on  the  Spanish  Main  towards 
the  end  of  July.  To  his  intense  surprise  a  column 
of  smoke  was  rising  from  it,  though  there  was  no 
settlement  within  a  hundred  miles.  On  landing 
he  found  a  leaden  plate  with  this  insoiption: 
'Captain  Drake!  Ji  you  fortune  to  come  to  this 
Port,  make  hast  away!  For  the  Spaniards  which 
you  had  with  you  here,  the  last  year,  have  be- 
wrayed the  place  and  taken  away  all  that  you 
left  here.  I  depart  hence,  this  present  7th  of 
July,  1572.  Your  very  loving  friend,  John 
Garrett. '  That  was  fourteen  days  before.  Drake, 
however,  was  determined  to  carry  out  his  plan. 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  103 

So  he  built  a  fort  and  set  up  his  pinnaces.  But 
others  had  now  found  the  secret  harbor;  for  in 
came  three  sail  under  Ranse,  an  Englishman, 
nhc  asked  that  he  be  taken  into  partnership, 
ivh  ch  was  done. 

Then  the  combined  forces,  not  much  over  a 
hundred  strong,  stole  out  and  along  the  coast  to 
tlie  Isle  of  Pines,  where  again  Drake  found  him- 
self forestalled.  From  the  negro  crews  of  two 
Spanish  vessels  he  discovered  that,  o  Jy  six  weeks 
earlier,  the  Maroons  had  annihilated  a  Spanish 
force  on  the  Isthmus  and  nearly  taken  Nombre  de 
Dios  itself.  These  MaFoons  were  the  descendants 
of  escaped  negro  slaves  intermarried  with  the  most 
warlike  of  the  Indians.  They  were  regular  desper- 
adoes, always,  and  naturally,  at  war  with  the 
Spaniards,  who  treated  them  as  vermin  to  be 
killed  at  sight.  Drake  put  the  captured  negroes 
ashore  to  join  the  Maroons,  with  whom  he 
always  made  friends.  Then  with  seventy-three 
picked  men  he  mad'^  his  dash  for  Nombre  de 
Dios,  leaving  the  rest  imder  Ranse  to  guard  the 
base. 

Nombre  de  Dios  was  the  Atlantic  terminus,  as 
Panama  was  the  Pacific  terminus,  of  the  treasure 
trail  across  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.    The  Spaniards, 


104  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

knowing  nothing  of  Cape  Horn,  and  unable  to  face 
the  appalling  dangers  of  Magellan's  straits,  used 
to  bring  the  Peruvian  treasure  ships  to  Panama, 
whence  the  treasure  was  taken  across  the  isthmus 
to  Nombre  de  Dios  by  recuas,  that  is,  by  mule 
trains  undei  escort. 

At  evening  Drake's  vessel  stood  off  the  harbor 
of  Nombre  de  Dios  and  stealthily  approached 
unseen.  It  was  planned  to  make  the  landing  in 
the  morning.  A  long  and  nerve-racking  wait 
ensued.  As  the  hours  dragged  on,  Drake  felt 
instinctively  that  his  younger  men  were  getting 
demoralized.  They  began  to  whisper  about  the 
size  of  the  town  —  'as  big  as  Plymouth*  —  with 
perhaps  a  whole  battalion  of  the  famous  Spanish 
infantry,  and  so  on.  It  wanted  an  hour  of  the 
first  real  streak  of  dawn.  But  just  then  tiie  old 
moon  sent  a  ray  of  light  quivering  in  on  the  tide. 
Drake  instantly  announced  the  dawn,  issued  the 
orders:  'Shove  off,  out  oars,  give  way!*  Inside 
the  bay  a  ship  just  arrived  from  sea  was  picking 
up  her  moorings.  A  boat  left  her  side  and  pulled 
like  mad  for  the  wharf.  But  Drake's  men  raced 
the  Spaniards,  beat  them,  and  made  them  sheer 
off  to  a  landing  some  way  beyond  the  town. 

Spiinging    eagerly    ashore    the  Englishmen 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  105 

tumbled  the  Spanish  guns  off  their  platfonns 
w-.ile  the  astonished  sentry  ran  for  dear  life.  In 
five  minutes  the  church  bells  were  pealing  out 
their  wild  alarms,  trumpet  calb  were  sounding, 
drums  were  beating  round  the  general  parade, 
and  the  civilians  of  the  place,  expectmg  massacre 
at  the  hands  of  the  Maroons,  were  rushing  about 
in  agonized  confusion.  D'ake's  men  fell  in  — 
they  were  all  well-drilled  —  and  were  quickly 
told  ofiF  into  three  detachments.  The  largest 
under  Drake,  the  next  under  Oxenham  —  the 
hero  of  Kingsley's  Weshcard  TIo!  —  and  the  third, 
of  twelve  men  only,  to  guard  the  pinnaces.  Hav- 
ing found  that  the  new  fort  on  the  hill  command- 
ing the  town  was  not  yet  occupied,  Drake  and 
Oxenham  marched  against  the  town  at  the  head 
%of  then*  sixty  men,  Oxeriiam  by  a  flank,  Drake 
straight  up  the  main  street,  each  with  a  trumpet 
sounding,  a  drum  rolling,  fire-pikes  blazing,  swords 
flashuig,  and  all  ranks  yelling  like  fiends.  Drake 
was  only  of  medium  stature.  But  he  had  the 
strength  of  a  giant,  the  pluck  of  a  bulldog,  the 
spring  of  a  tiger,  and  the  cut  of  a  man  that  is 
born  to  command.  Broad-browed,  with  steel- 
blue  eyes  and  close-cropped  auburn  hair  and 
beard,  he  was  all  kindliness  of  countenance  to 


106  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

friends,  but  a  very  'Dragon*  to  his  Spanish 

foes. 

As  Drake's  men  reached  the  Plaza,  his  trumpeter 
blew  one  blast  of  defiance  and  then  fell  dead. 
Drake  returned  the  Spanish  volley  and  charged 
immediately,  the  drummer  beating  furiously, 
pikes  levelled,  and  swords  brandished.  The 
Spaniards  did  not  wait  for  him  to  close;  for  Oxen- 
ham's  party,  fire-pikes  blazing,  were  taking  them 
in  flank.  Out  went  the  Spaniards  through  the 
Panama  gate,  with  screaming  townsfolk  scurrying 
before  them.  Bang  went  the  gate,  now  under 
English  guard,  as  Drake  made  for  the  Governor's 
house.  There  lay  a  pile  of  silver  bars  such  as 
his  men  had  never  dreamt  of:  in  all  about  four 
hundred  tons  of  silver  ready  for  the  homeward 
fleet  —  enough  not  only  to  fill  but  sink  the  Pascha, 
Swan,  and  pinnaces.  But  silver  was  then  no 
more  to  Drake  than  it  was  once  to  Solomon. 
What  he  wanted  was  the  diamonds  and  pearls 
and  gold,  which  were  stored,  he  learned,  in  the 
King's  Treasure  House  beside  the  bay. 

.A  terrific  storm  now  burst.  The  fire-pikes  and 
arquebuses  had  to  be  taken  under  cover.  The 
wall  of  the  King's  Treasure  House  defied  all 
efforts  to  breach  it.    And  the  Spaniards  who  had 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  107 

been  shut  into  the  town,  discovering  how  few  the 
English  were,  reformed  for  attack.  Some  of 
Drake's  men  began  to  lose  heart.  But  in  a 
moment  he  stepped  to  the  t'ront  and  ordered 
Oxenham  to  go  round  and  smash  in  the  Treasure 
House  gate  while  he  held  the  Plaza  himself. 
Just  as  the  men  stepped  off,  however,  he  reeled 
aside  and  fell.  He  had  fainted  from  loss  of  blood 
caused  by  a  wound  he  had  managed  to  conceal. 
There  was  no  holding  the  men  now.  They  gave 
him  a  cordial,  after  which  he  bound  up  his  leg, 
for  he  was  a  first-rate  surgeon,  and  repeated  his 
orders  as  before.  But  there  were  a  good  many 
wounded;  and,  with  Drake  no  longer  able  to 
lead,  the  rest  all  begged  to  go  back.  So  back  to 
their  boats  they  went,  and  over  to  the  Bastimen- 
tos  or  Victualling  Island,  which  contained  the 
gardens  and  poultry  runs  of  the  Nombre  de  Dies 
citizens. 

Here  they  were  visited,  under  a  flag  of  truce, 
by  the  Spanish  officer  commanding  the  reinforce- 
ment just  sent  across  from  Panama.  He  was  all 
politeness,  airs,  and  graces,  while  trying  to  ferret 
out  the  secret  of  their  real  strength.  Drake, 
however,  was  not  to  be  outdone  either  in  diplo- 
macy or  war;  and  a  delightful  litde  comedy  of 


108  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

piying  and  veiling  courtesies  was  played  out, 
to  the  great  amusement  of  the  English  sea-dogs. 

Finally,  when  the  time  agreed  upon  was  up,  the 
Spanish  o£Scer  departed,  pouring  forth  a  stream  of 
high-flown  compliments,  which  Drake,  who  was  r. 
Spanish  scholar,  answered  with  the  like.  Waving 
each  other  a  ceremonious  adieu  the  two  leaders 
were  left  no  wiser  than  before. 

Nombre  de  Dios,  now  strongly  reinforced  and 
on  its  guard,  was  not  an  easy  nut  to  crack.  But 
Panama?  Panama  meant  a  risky  march  inland 
and  a  still  riskier  return  by  the  regular  treasure 
trail.  But  with  the  help  of  the  Maroons,  who 
knew  the  furtive  byways  to  a  foot,  the  thing 
might  yet  be  done.  Ranse  thought  the  game  not 
worth  the  candle  and  retired  from  the  partnership, 
much  to  Drake's  delight. 

A  good  preliminary  stroke  was  made  by  raid- 
ing Cartagena.  Here  Drake  found  a  frigate  de- 
serted by  its  crew,  who  had  gone  ashore  to  see 
fair  play  in  a  duel  fought  about  a  seaman's  mis- 
tress. The  old  man  left  in  charge  confessed  that 
a 'Seville  ship  was  round  the  point.  Drake  cut 
her  out  at  once,  in  spite  of  being  fired  at  from  the 
shore.  Next,  in  came  two  more  Spanish  sail  to 
warn  Cartagena  that  'Captain  Drake  has  been 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  109 
at  Nombre  de  Dios  and  taken  it,  and  if  a  blest 
bullet  hadn't  hit  him  in  the  leg  he  would  have 
sacked  it  too. ' 

Cartagena,  however,  was  up  in  arms  already; 
so  Drake  put  all  his  prisoners  ashore  unhurt  and 
retired  to  reconsider  his  position,  leaving  Di^o, 
a  negro  fugitive  from  Nombre  de  Dios,  to  muster 
the  Maroons  for  a  raid  overland  to  Panama. 
Then  Drake,  who  sank  the  Swan  and  burnt  his 
prizes  because  he  had  only  men  enough  for  the 
Pascha  and  the  pinnaces,  disappeared  into  a  new 
secret  harbor.  But  his  troubles  were  only  be- 
ginning; for  word  came  that  the  Maroons  said 
that  nothing  could  be  done  inland  till  the  rains 
were  over,  five  months  hence.  This  meant  a 
long  wait;  however,  what  with  making  supply 
depots  and  picking  up  prizes  here  and  there,  the 
wet  time  might  pass  off  well  enough. 

One  day  Oxenham's  crew  nearly  mutinied  over 
the  shortness  of  provisions.  *Have  ye  not  as 
much  as  I,'  Drake  called  to  them,  *and  has  God's 
Providence  ever  failed  us  yet?*  Within  an  hour 
a  Spanish  vessel  hove  in  sight,  making  such  very 
heavy  weather  of  it  that  boarding  her  was  out  of 
the  question.  But  'We  spent  not  two  hours  in 
attendance  till  it  pleased  God  to  send  us  a  reason- 


110         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

able  calm,  so  that  we  might  use  our  guns  and 
approach  her  at  pleasure  We  found  her  laden 
with  victuals,  which  we  received  as  sent  of  God's 
great  mercy.'  Then  'Yellow  Jack*  broke  out, 
and  the  men  began  to  fall  sick  and  die.  The 
company  consisted  of  seventy-three  men;  and 
twenty-eight  of  these  perished  of  the  fever, 
among  them  the  surgeon  himself  and  Drake's 
own  brother. 

But  on  the  3d  of  February,  1573,  Drake  was 
ready  for  the  dasli  on  Panama.  Leaving  behind 
about  twenty-fiva'  men  to  guard  the  base,  he  began 
the  overland  march  with  a  company  of  fifty,  all 
told,  of  whom  thirty -one  were  picked  Maroons. 
The  fourth  day  out  Drake  climbed  a  forest  giant 
on  the  top  of  the  Divide,  saw  the  Atlantic  behind 
him  and  the  Pacific  far  in  front,  and  vowed  that 
if  he  lived  he  would  sail  an  English  ship  over  the 
great  South  Sea.  Two  days  more  and  the  party 
left  the  protecting  forest  'or  the  rolling  pampas 
where  the  risk  of  being  seen  increased  at  every 
step.  Another  day's  march  and  Panama  was 
sighted  as  they  topped  the  crest  of  one  of  the 
bigger  waves  of  ground.  A  clever  Maroon  went 
ahead  to  spy  out  the  situation  and  returned  to 
say  that  two  recuas  would  leave  at  dusk,  one 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  m 

coming  from  Venta  Cruz,  fifteen  miles  northwest 
of  Panama,  carrying  silver  and  supplies,  and  the 
other  from  Panama,  loaded  with  jewels  and  gold. 
Then  a  Spanish  sentry  was  caught  asleep  by  the 
advanced  party  of  Maroons,  who  smelt  him  out 
by  the  match  of  his  fire-lock.  In  his  gratitude 
for  being  protected  from  the  Maroons,  this  man 
confirmed  the  previous  information. 

The  excitement  now  was  most  intense;  for  the 
crowning  triumph  of  a  two-years'  great  pdven- 
ture  was  at  last  within  striking  distance  of  the 
English  crew.    Drake  drew  them  up  in  proper 
order;  and  every  man  took  off  his  shirt  and  put 
it  on  again  outside  his  coat,  so  that  each  would 
recognize  the  others  in  the  night  attack.  Then 
they  lay  listemng  for  the  mule-bells,  till  presently 
the  warning  tinkle  let  them  know  that  recuas 
were  approaching  from  both  Venta  Cruz  and 
Panama.   The  first,  or  silver  train  from  Venta 
Cruz,  was  to  pass  m  silence;  only  the  second, 
or  gold  train  from  Panama,  was  to  be  attacked. 
TJnluckily  one  of  the  Englishmen  had  been  secretly 
taking  pulls  at  his  flask  and  had  just  become  pot- 
valiant  when  a  stray  Spanish  gentleman  came 
riding  up  from  Venta  Cruz.    The  Englishman 
sprang  to  his  feet,  swayed  about,  was  tripped  up 


11«  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

by  Maroons  and  promptly  sat  upon.  But  the 
Spaniard  saw  his  shirt,  reined  up,  whipped  round, 
and  galloped  hack  to  Panama.  This  took  place 
so  silently  at  the  extreme  flank  in  towards  Panama 
that  it  was  not  observed  by  Drake  or  any  other 
Englishman.  Presently  what  appeared  to  be 
the  goUI  train  came  within  range.  Drake  blew 
his  whistle;  and  all  set  on  with  glee,  only  to  find 
that  the  Panama  recua  they  were  attacking  was 
a  decoy  sent  on  to  spring  the  trap  and  that  the 
gold  and  jewels  had  been  stopped. 

The  Spaniards  were  up  in  arms.  But  Drake 
slipped  away  through  the  engulfing  forest  and 
came  out  on  the  Atlantic  side»  where  he  found  his 
rear-guard  intact  and  eager  for  further  exploits. 
He  was  met  by  Captain  T6tu,  a  Huguenot  just 
out  from  Prance,  with  seventy  men.  T6tu  gave 
Drake  news  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
and  this  drew  the  French  and  English  Protestants 
together.  They  agreed  to  engage  in  further 
raiding  of  Spaniards,  share  and  share  alike  by 
nationalities,  though  Drake  had  now  only  thiity- 
one  men  against  Tetu's  seventy.  Nombre  de 
Dios,  they  decided,  was  not  vulnerable,  as  all 
the  available  Spanish  forces  were  concentrated 
there  for  its  defence,  and  so  they  planned  to  seize 


DRAKE'S  BEGINNING  us 
a  Spanish  train  of  gold  and  jewels  just  far  enough 
inland  to  give  them  tinie  to  get  away  with  the 
Plunder  before  the  garrison  could  reach  them. 
Somewhere  on  the  coast  they  established  a  base 
of  operations  and  then  marched  overland  to  the 
Panama  trail  and  lay  in  wait. 

This  time  the  marauders  were  succesrful. 
When  the  Spanish  train  of  gold  and  jewels  came 
opposite  the  ambush,  Drake's  whistle  blew.  The 
liading  mules  were  stopped.  The  rest  lay  down, 
as  mule-trains  will.  The  guard  was  overpowered 
after  killing  a  Maroon  and  wounding  Captain 
Tetu.  And  when  the  garrison  of  Nombre  de 
Dios  arrived  a  few  hours  later  the  gold  and  jewels 
had  all  gone. 

For  a  day  and  a  night  and  another  day  Drake 
and  his  men  pushed  on,  loaded  with  plunder,  back 
to  their  rendezvous  along  the  coast,  leaving  Tetu 
and  two  of  his  devoted  liVenchmen  to  be  rescued 
later.  When  they  arrived,  worn  out,  at  the  ren- 
dezvous, not  a  man  was  m  sight.  Drake  built  a 
raft  out  of  unhewn  tree  trunks  and,  setting  up  a 
biscuit  bag  as  a  sail,  pushed  out  with  two  French- 
men and  one  Englishman  till  he  found  his  boats. 
The  plunder  was  then  divided  up  between  the 
French  and  the  English,  while  Oxenham  headed 


114         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

a  rescue  party  to  bring  T6tu  to  the  coast  One 
Frenchman  was  found.  But  TAtu  and  the  other 
had  Iteen  caught  by  Spaniards. 

The  Ptueha  was  given  to  the  accumulated  Span- 
ish prisoners  to  sail  away  in.  The  pinnaces  were 
kept  till  a  suital)it>,  smart-sailing  Spanish  craft 
was  found,  boarded,  and  captured  to  rt'place  them ; 
whereupon  they  were  broken  up  and  their  metal 
given  to  the  Maroons.  Then,  in  two  frigates, 
with  ballast  of  silver  and  cargo  of  jewels  and  gold, 
the  thirty  survivors  of  the  adventure  set  sail  for 
home.  '  Within  23  days  we  passed  from  the  Cape 
of  Florida  to  the  Isles  of  Scilly,  and  so  arrived 
at  Plymouth  on  Sunday  about  sermon  time, 
August  9,  1573,  at  what  time  the  news  of  our 
Captain's  return,  brought  unto  his  friends,  did 
so  speedily  pass  over  all  the  church,  and  surpass 
their  minds  with  desire  to  see  him,  that  very  few 
or  none  remained  with  the  preacher,  all  hasten- 
ing to  see  the  evidence  of  God's  love  and  blessing 
towards  our  Gracious  Queen  and  country,  by  the 
fruit  of  our  Captain's  labour  and  success.  Soli 
Deo  Gloria.' 


CHAPTER  VII 


DHAMS'S  'BNCOMPA88MENT  OP  ALL  THE  WORLDE* 

WiiE\  Drukc  left  for  Nonihro  do  Dios  in  the 
spring  of  1572,  Si)ain  und  Kngland  were  holh 
ready  to  fly  at  each  other's  throats.  AVhen  he 
came  back  ''le  summer  of  1573,  they  were 
all  for  makmg  fiends  —  hypocritically  so,  but 
friends.  Drake's  plunder  stank  in  the  nostrils 
of  the  haughty  Dons.  It  was  a  very  inconvenient 
factor  in  the  diplomatic  problem  for  Elizabeth. 
Therefore  Drake  disappeared  and  his  plunder 
too.  He  went  to  Ireland  on  service  in  the  navy. 
His  plunder  was  divided  up  in  secrecy  among  all 
the  high  and  low  contracting  parties. 

In  1574  the  Anglo-Spanish  scene  had  changed 
again.  The  Spaniards  had  been  so  harassed  by 
the  English  sea-dogs  between  the  Netherlands 
and  Spain  that  Philip  listened  to  his  great  admiral, 
Menendez,  who,  despairing  of  direct  attack  on 
England,  proposed  to  seize  the  Scilly  Isles  and 

115 


116  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

from  that  naval  base  clear  out  a  way  through  all 
the  pirates  of  the  English  Channel.  War  seemed 
certain.  But  a  terrible  epidemic  broke  out  in 
the  Spanish  fleet.  Menendez  died.  And  Philip 
changed  his  policy  again. 

This  same  year  John  Oxenham,  Drake's  old 
second-in-command,  sailed  over  to  his  death. 
The  Spaniards  caught  him  on  the  Isthmus  of 
Darien  and  hanged  him  as  a  pirate  at  Lima  in 
Peru. 

In  the  autumn  of  1575  Drake  returned  to  Eng- 
land with  a  new  friend,  Thomas  Doughty,  a 
soldier-scholar  of  the  Renaissance,  clever  and 
good  company,  but  one  of  those  'Italianate*  Eng- 
lishmen who  gave  rise  to  the  Italian  proverb: 
Inglese  italianato  k  diaodo  ineamato  —  'an  Italian- 
ized Englishman  is  the  very  Devil.'  Doughty 
was  patronized  by  the  Earl  of  Essex,  who  had 
great  influence  at  court. 

The  next  year,  1576,  is  noted  for  the  'Spanish 
Fury. '  Philip's  sea  power  was  so  hampered  by  the 
Dutch  and  English  privateers,  and  he  was  so  im- 
potent against  the  English  navy,  that  he  could  get 
no  ready  money,  either  by  loan  or  from  America, 
to  pay  his  troops  in  Antwerp.  These  men,  re- 
inforced by  others,  therefore  mutinied  and  sacked 


'ENCOMPASSMENTOFALLTHEWOBLDE*  117 

the  whole  of  Antwop,  killing  all  who  opposed 
them  and  practically  ruining  the  city  from  which 
Charles  V  used  to  draw  such  splendid  subsidies. 
The  result  was  a  strengthening  of  Dutch  resistance 

everywhere. 

Elizabeth  had  been  unusually  tortuous  in  her 
policy  about  this  time.  But  in  1577  she  was 
ready  for  another  shot  at  Spain,  provided  always 
that  it  entailed  no  open  war.  Don  John  of 
Austria,  natural  son  of  Charles  V,  had  all  the  shin- 
ing qualities  that  his  legitimate  half-brother  Philip 
lacked.  He  was  the  hero  of  Lepanto  and  had 
offered  to  conquer  the  Moors  in  Tunis  if  Philip 
would  let  him  rule  as  king.  Philip,  crafty,  cold, 
and  jealous,  of  course  refused  and  sent  him  to  the 
Netherlands  instead.  Here  Don  John  formed 
the  still  more  aspiring  plan  of  pacifying  the  Dutch, 
marrying  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  deposing  Eliza- 
beth, and  reigning  over  all  the  British  Isles.  The 
Pope  had  blessed  both  schemes.  But  the  Dutch 
insisted  on  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  the 
Spanish  troops.  This  demolished  Don  John's 
plan.  But  it  pleased  Philip,  who  could  now  ruin 
his  brilliant  brother  by  letting  him  wear  himself 
out  by  trying  to  govern  the  Netherlands  without 
an  army.    Then  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  brother  to 


118  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

the  King  of  France,  came  into  the  fast-thickening 

plot  at  the  head  of  the  French  rescuers  of  the 
Netherlands  from  Spain.  But  a  victorious  French 
army  in  the  Netherlands  was  worse  for  England 
than  even  Spanish  rule  there.  So  Elizabeth  tried 
to  support  the  Dutch  enough  to  annoy  Philip 
and  iit  the  same  time  keep  them  independent  of 
the  French. 

In  her  desire  to  support  them  against  Philip 
indirectly  she  found  it  convenient  to  call  Drake 
into  consultation.  Drake  then  presented  to  Sir 
Francis  Walsingham  his  letter  of  commen-'ation 
from  the  Earl  of  Essex,  under  whom  he  had  served 
in  Ireland;  whereupon  'Secretary  Walsingham  [the 
first  civilian  who  ever  grasped  the  principle  of 
modern  sea  power]  declared  that  Her  Majesty 
had  received  divers  injuria  of  the  King  of  Spain, 
for  which  she  desired  revenge.  He  showed  me 
a  plot  [map]  willing  me  to  note  down  where  he 
might  be  most  annoyed.  But  I  refused  to  set 
my  hand  to  anything,  affirming  that  Her  Majesty 
was  mortal,  and  that  if  it  should  please  God  to 
take  Her  Majesty  away  that  some  prince  might 
reign  that  might  be  iti  league  with  the  King  of 
Spain,  and  then  would  my  own  hiind  be  a  witness 
against  myself.'    Elizabeth  was  forty-four.  Mary 


•  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE '  119 

Queen  of  Scots  was  watching  for  the  throne. 
Plots  and  counter-plots  were  everywhere. 

Shortly  after  this  interview  Drake  was  told 
late  at  night  that  he  should  have  audience  of  Her 
Majesty  next  day.  On  seeing  him,  Elizabeth 
went  straight  to  the  point.  'Drake,  I  would 
gladly  be  revenged  on  the  King  of  Spain  for  divers 
injuries  that  I  have  received.'  'And  withal,' 
says  Drake,  'craved  my  advice  therein;  who  told 
Her  Majesty  the  only  way  was  to  annoy  him  by 
the  Indies.'  On  that  he  disclosed  his  whole 
daring  scheme  iur  i  aiding  the  Pacific.  Elizabeth, 
who,  like  her  father,  'loved  a  man*  who  was  a 
man,  fell  in  with  this  at  once.  Secrecy  was  of 
course  essential.  *Her  Majesty  did  swear  by 
her  Crown  that  if  any  within  her  realm  did  give 
the  King  of  Spain  to  understand  hereof  they 
should  lose  their  heads  therefor.*  At  a  subse- 
quent audience  'Her  Majesty  gave  me  special 
commandment  that  of  all  men  my  Lord  Treasurer 
should  not  know  of  it.'  The  cautious  Lord 
Treasurer  Burleigh  was  against  what  he  con- 
sidered dangerous  forms  of  privateering  and  was 
for  keeping  on  good  terms  with  Spanish  arms  and 
trade  as  long  as  possible.  Mendoza,  lynx-eyed 
ambassador  of  Spain,   was  hoodwinked.  But 


120  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Doughty,  the  viper  in  Drake's  bosom,  was  medi- 
tating mischief:  not  exactly  treason  with  Spain, 
but  at  least  a  breach  of  confidence  by  telling 
Burleigh. 

De  Guaras,  chief  Spanish  spy  in  England,  was 
sorely  puzzled.  Drake's  ostensible  destination 
was  Egypt,  and  his  men  were  openly  enlisted  for 
Alexandria.  The  Spaniards,  however,  saw  far 
enough  through  this  to  suppose  that  he  was  really 
going  back  to  Nombre  de  Dios.  It  dul  not  seem 
likely,  though  quite  possible,  that  he  was  going 
in  search  of  the  Northwest  Passage,  for  Martin 
Frobisher  had  gone  out  on  that  quest  the  year 
before  and  had  returned  with  a  lump  of  bla«^ 
stone  from  the  arctic  desolation  of  Baffin  Island. 
No  one  seems  to  have  divined  the  truth.  Cape 
Horn  was  unknown.  The  Strait  of  Magellan 
was  supposed  to  be  the  only  opening  betwera 
South  America  and  a  huge  antarctic  continrat, 
and  its  reputation  for  disasters  had  grown  so  ter- 
rible, and  rightly  terrible,  that  it  had  been  given 
up  as  the  way  into  the  Pacific.  The  Spanish  way, 
as'we  have  seen,  was  overland  from  Nombre  de 
Dios  to  Panama,  more  or  less  along  the  line  of 
the  modern  Panama  Canal. 

In  the  end  Drake  got  away  quietly  enough, 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WOBLDE '  121 

on  the  15th  Novembor,  1577.  The  court  and 
countiy  were  in  great  exdtemoit  ov«r  the  o(m- 
spiracy  between  the  Spaniards  and  Maiy  Queen 
of  Scots,  now  a  prisoner  <ji  nine  yean'  standing. 

'The  famous  voyage  or  sir  francis  drake 
into  the  South  Sea,  and  therehence  about  the  whole 
Globe  of  the  Earth,  begun  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1577'  well  deserves  its  great  renown.  Drake's 
flotilla  seems  absurdly  small.  But,  for  its  own  time, 
it  was  far  from  insignificant;  and  it  was  exceed- 
ingly well  found.  The  Pelican,  afterwards  called 
the  Golden  Hind,  though  his  flagship,  was  of  only 
a  hundred  tons.  The  Elizabeth^  the  Swan,  the 
Marigoldt  and  the  Benedict  were  of  eighty,  fifty, 
thirty,  and  fifteen.  There  were  altogether  less 
than  three  hundred  tons  and  two  hundred  men. 
The  crews  numbered  a  hundred  and  fifty.  The 
rest  w^  gentlemen-adventurers,  special  artificers, 
two  trained  surveyors,  musicians,  boys,  and 
Drake's  own  page.  Jack  Drake.  There  was 
'great  store  of  wild-fire,  chain-shot,  harquebusses, 
pistols,  corslets,  bows  and  other  like  weapons  in 
great  abundance.  Neither  had  he  omitted  to 
make  provision  for  ornament  and  delight,  carry- 
ing with  him  expert  musicians,  rich  furniture 


m         EUZ^BETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


(all  the  vesHc'ij  for  k's  table,  yea,  many  belonging 
even  to  the  cook-room,  being  of  pure  silver), 
and  divers  shows  of  all  sorts  of  curious  workman- 
ship whereby  the  civility  and  magnificence  of 
his  native  country  might  amongst  all  nations 
withersoever  he  should  come,  be  the  more  admired.*  * 

■  The  little  handbook  issued  by  Pette  and  Jackman  m  1580,  for 
thoae  whom  we  should  now  call  commercial  travellen,  is  full  of 

'tips'  about  '  Thinges  to  be  carried  with  you,  whereof  more  or 
lesse  is  to  be  carried  for  a  shewe  of  our  commodities  to  bee  made.' 
For  instance; — 'Kersies  of  all  orient  coulours,  specially  of  stamd 
[fine  worsted],  brode  cloth  of  orient  coulours  also.  Taffeta  hata. 
Deepe  cappes  for  mariners.  Quilted  Cappes  of  Levant  Taffeta  of 
divers  coulours,  for  the  night.  Garters  of  Silke.  Girdeb  of  Buffe 
and  all  leathers,  with  gilt  and  ungilt  Buckles,  spedally  waat  girdela. 
Wast  girdels  of  velvet.  Gloves  of  all  sortes,  knit  and  of  leather. 
Gloves  perfumed.  Shooes  of  Spanish  leather,  of  divers  colours. 
Looking  glasses  for  Women,  great  and  fayre.  Comes  of  Ivorie. 
Handkerchewes,  with  silk  of  divers  colours,  wrought.  Gluen  eyes 
to  ride  with  against  dust  [so  motor  goggles  are  not  so  new,  after  all!]. 
Boxes  with  weightes  of  golde,  and  every  kind  of  coyne  of  golde,  to 
shewe  that  the  people  here  use  weight  and  measure,  which  is  a  cer- 
ta>-ne  showe  of  wisedome,  and  of  a  certayne  government  settled  here. ' 

There  are  also  elaborate  directions  about  what  to  take  'For 
banketing  on  shipborde  of  persons  of  credite'  [and  prospective  cus- 
tomers]. 'First,  the  sweetest  perfumes  to  set  under  hatches  to  make 
the  place  smell  sweete  against  their  coming  aborde.  Marmdade. 
Bucket  [candies].  Figges  barrelled.  Raisins  of  the  Sun.  Comfets 
that  shall  not  dissolve.  Prunes  damaske.  Dried  peres.  Walnuttes. 
Almondes.  Olives,  to  make  them  taste  their  wine.  The  Apple 
John  that  dureth  two  yeares,  to  make  showe  of  our  fruites.  Hul- 
locke  [a  sweet  wine].  Sacke.  Vials  of  good  sweet  waters,  and  casting- 
bottels  of  glass,  to  besprinckel  the  gests  withal,  after  their  coming 
aborde.  The  sweet  oyle  of  Zante  and  excellent  French  vinegar  and 
»  fine  kind  of  Bidcet  steeped  in  the  mum  do  make  •  banketting  diahe. 


•  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE '  123 

Sou'sou'west  went  Drake's  flotilla  and  made 
its  landfall  Howards  the  Pole  Antartick'  oflF  the 
•Land  of  Devils'  in  31°  40'  south,  northeast  of 
Montevideo.  Frightful  storms  had  buflFeted  the 
little  ships  about  for  weary  weeks  together,  and 
all  hands  thought  they  were  the  victims  of  some 
magician  on  board,  perhaps  the  'Italianate* 
Doughty,  or  else  of  native  witchcraft  from  the 
shore.  The  experienced  old  pilot,  who  was  a 
Portuguese,  explained  that  the  natives  had  sold 
themselves  to  Devils,  who  were  kinder  masters 
than  the  Spaniards,  and  that  'now  when  they 
see  ships  they  cast  sand  into  the  air,  whereof 
ariseth  a  most  gross  thick  fogg  and  palpable 

and  a  little  Sugar  cast  in  it  cooleth  and  comforteth,  and  refreaheth 
the  spirittes  of  num.  Synomomme  Water  and  Imperial!  Water  is 
to  be  had  with  you  to  comfort  your  sicke  in  the  voyage. ' 

\o  feature  is  neglected.  'Take  with  you  the  large  mappe  of  Ixm- 
don  and  let  the  river  be  drawn  full  of  shippes  to  make  the  more 
showe  of  your  great  trade.  The  booke  of  the  Attyre  of  All  Nations 
carried  with  you  and  bestowed  in  gift  would  be  much  esteemed. 
Tinder  boxes,  with  steel,  flint,  and  matches.  A  painted  Bellowes, 
for  perhaps  they  have  not  the  use  of  them.  All  manner  «rf  edge 
took.  Note  specially  what  dyeing  they  use.*  After  many  more 
items  the  authors  end  up  with  two  bits  of  good  advice.  '  Take  with 
you  those  things  that  bee  in  the  Perfection  of  Goodnesse  to  make 
your  commodities  in  credit  in  time  to  come.'  'Learn  what  the 
Country  hath  before  you  offer  your  commodities  for  sale;  for  if  you 
bring  thither  what  you  yourself  desire  to  lade  yourself  home  with, 
you  must  not  sell  yours  deare  lest  hereafter  you  purchase  theirs  not 
so  chespe  aa  you  would.' 


\U  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

darkness,  and  withal  horrible,  fearful*  and  intoler- 
able winds,  rains,  and  storms. ' 

But  witchcraft  was  not  Thomas  Doughty's 
real  oflfence.  Even  before  leaving  England,  and 
after  betraying  Elizabeth  and  Drake  to  Burleigh, 
who  wished  to  curry  favor  with  the  Spanish 
traders  rather  than  provoke  the  Spanish  power, 
Doughty  was  busy  tampering  with  the  men. 
A  storekeeper  had  to  be  sent  back  for  peculation 
dedgned  to  curtail  Drake's  range  of  action.  Then 
Doughty  tempted  officers  and  men:  talked  up  the 
terrors  of  Magellan's  Strait,  ran  down  his  friend's 
authority,  and  finally  tried  to  encourage  down- 
right desertion  by  underhand  means.  This  was 
too  much  for  Drake.  Doughty  was  arrested,  tied 
to  the  mast,  and  threatened  with  dire  punishment 
if  he  did  not  mend  his  ways.  But  he  would  not 
mend  his  ways.  He  had  a  brother  on  board  and 
a  friend,  a  'very  craftie  lawyer';  so  stem  meas- 
ures were  soon  required.  Drake  held  a  sort  of 
court-martial  which  condemned  Doughty  to  death. 
Then  Doughty,  having  played  his  last  card  and 
losf,  determined  to  die  'like  an  officer  and  gentle- 
man.* 

Drake  solemnly  'pronounced  him  the  dhild  of 
Death  and  persuaded  him  that  he  would  by  these 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE  *  m 
means  make  him  the  servant  of  God. '  Doughty 
fell  in  with  the  idea  and  the  former  friends  took  the 
Sacrament  together,  'for  which  Master  Doughty 
gave  him  hearty  thanks,  never  otherwise  terming 
him  than  "My  good  Captaine." '  Chaplain 
Fletcher  having  ended  with  the  absolution,  Drake 
and  Doughty  sat  down  together  'as  cheerfully 
as  evCT  in  their  lives,  each  cheering  up  the  other 
and  taking  their  leave  by  drinking  to  each  other, 
as  if  some  journey  had  been  in  hand.'  Then 
Drake  and  Doughty  went  aside  for  a  private 
conversation  of  which  no  record  has  remained. 
After  this  Doughty  walked  to  the  place  of  execu- 
tion, where,  like  Kmg  Chaxlea  I. 

He  nothing  common  did  or  mean 
Upon  that  memorable  scene. 

'And  so  bidding  the  whole  company  farewell  he 
laid  his  head  on  the  block.*  'Lo!  this  is  the  end 
of  traitors!'  said  Drake  as  the  executioner  raised 
the  head  aloft. 

Drake,  like  Magellan,  decided  to  winter  where 
he  was,  in  Port  St.  Julian  on  the  east  coast  of 
Patagonia.  His  troubles  with  the  men  were  not 
yet  over;  for  the  soldiers  resented  being  put  on 


126  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

an  equality  with  the  sailors,  and  the  *very  craftie 
lawyer'  and  Dough ty's  brother  were  anything 
but  pleased  with  the  turn  events  had  taken. 
Then,  again,  the  faint-hearts  murmured  in  their 
storm-beaten  tents  against  the  horrors  of  the 
awful  Straits.  So  Drake  resolved  to  make  things 
clear  for  good  and  all.  Unfolding  a  document 
he  began:  *My  Masters,  I  am  a  very  bad  orator, 
for  my  bringing  up  hath  not  been  in  learning, 
but  what  I  shall  speak  here  let  every  man  take  good 
notice  of  and  let  him  write  it  down;  for  I  will 
speak  nothing  but  I  will  answer  it  in  En^and, 
yea,  and  before  Her  Majesty,  and  I  have  it  here 
already  set  down.'  Then,  aftor  reminding  them 
of  the  great  adventure  before  them  and  saying 
that  mutiny  and  dissension  must  stop  at  once, 
he  went  on:  'For  by  the  life  of  God  it  doth  even 
take  my  wits  from  me  to  think  of  it.  Here  is 
such  controversy  between  the  gentlemen  and 
sailors  that  it  doth  make  me  mad  to  hear  it. 
I  must  have  the  gentleman  to  haul  with  the 
mariner  and  the  mariner  with  the  gentleman.  I 
would  know  him  that  would  refuse  to  set  his 
hand  to  a  rope!  But  I  know  there  is  not  any  such 
here.'  To  those  whose  hearts  failed  them  he 
offered  the  Marigold.    *  But  let  them  go  homeward ; 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE '  1«7 

for  if  I  find  them  in  my  way,  I  will  surely  link 

them.'  Not  a  man  stepped  forward.  Then, 
turning  to  the  officers,  he  discharged  every  one 
of  them  for  re-appointment  at  his  pleasure. 
Next,  he  made  the  worst  ofifenders,  the  'craftie 
lawyer'  included,  step  to  the  front  for  reprimand. 
Finally,  producing  the  Queen's  commission,  he 
ended  by  a  ringing  appeal  to  their  united  patriot- 
ism. 'We  have  set  by  the  ears  three  mighty 
Princes  [the  sovereigns  of  England,  Spain,  and 
Portugal];  and  if  this  voyage  should  not  have 
success  we  should  not  only  be  a  scorning  unto 
our  enemies  but  a  blot  on  our  country  for  ever. 
What  triumph  would  it  not  be  for  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal! The  Like  of  this  would  never  more  be 
tried.*  Then  he  gave  back  every  man  his  rank 
again,  explaining  that  he  and  they  were  all  ser- 
vants of  Her  Majesty  together.  With  this  the  men 
marched  o£F,  loyal  and  obedient,  to  their  tents. 

Next  week  Drake  sailed  for  the  much  dreaded 
Straits,  before,  entering  which  he  changed  the 
Pelican's  name  to  the  Golden  Hind,  which  was  the 
crest  of  Sir  Christopher  Hutton,  one  of  the  chief  pro- 
moters of  the  enterprise  and  also  one  of  Doughty 's 
patrons.  Then  every  vessel  struck  her  topsail 
to  the  bunt  in  honor  of  the  Queen  as  well  as  to 


1«8  ELIZABETHAN  SEA  DOCS 

show  that  all  discoveries  and  c;iptun     wen-  to 
be  mad*'  in  her  sole  li 'nio.    Se fntet     du^  of 
anpalliiif^  dangers  saw  them  through  l..<  Straiv, 
where  icy  squalls   aine  rushing  down  from  evv 
quartrr  of  the  baiii.  k'  c  hannds.    Bu.  th<'  Pacii  c 
was  still  worse.   For  n-i  kss  than  "f* v  two  con- 
secutive days  a  furious  gale  kept  driving;  them 
about  like  so  many  bits  of  driftwood.    *l  »e  like 
oi  it  no  trav  eller  hath  felt,  ncitbar  hath  here 
ever  been  such  a  temp^t  since  Noah's 
The  little  English  vessels  fought  for  thrir  v^ry 
lives  in  that  devouring  hell  of  water^  the  luoel  est 
and  most  stupendous  in  the  world,    ilie  Ma^  *Ai 
went  tlown  with  all  hands,  an  '  Pa     n  F   :ci  r, 
who  }  t'ard  their  dyi  ^'  call  thoi.  lit  it  wt  ^  a  ju^ 
ment     At  last  the  gale  abated     ar  ^ape  H&en 
when  Drake  landed  with  i  c<>  i  r  ^s     'nle  P  ir 
son  '  richer  set  up  a  .-tone  ■   gr  vea  wil 
Queen's  name  and  the  d      of  *  he  discovf^rx 

Deceived  by  i  '  se  -n.j  u  the  ist  u  . 
oil  the  Spanish  c.  .-t>  Drf^  t  .  s-nt  y  y 
northwest  fro'n  C    >e  li  /       li     truck  in 

noHheast  and  pi^^^ed         be  C  leai^  ^ud 
It  was  December,  1578;  but.  no-  a  ^urd  o  «ars- 
iog  had  readied  tbe  Spanish  I  UL-ific  when 
stood  in  to  Valpar  Iso.   Seeing  a  sdl,  thr  &^ 


I  ^     VIPASSMEM  OF  ALL  THE  WOBLD£'  129 

of  the  Grand  CaptcP  '^  of  the  South  got  up  a  cask  of 
wiiic  and  beat  a  weloMne  on  their  drums.  In 

I  "   twinkling  of  ;i    ey-  b'igantic  Tom  Moone 
was  over  i  he  sidt-  at  the  head  of  a  party  of  board- 
Ts  who  '  id  aboi  '  tl  .-m  with  a  will  and  soon 
'"ov         Spaniard.,  1    ow.    Half  a  million  dol- 
i  -s'      vui  of  gold  and  jewels  was  taken  with 

!>    e  then  found  a  pli.      n  Saladti  Bay  wh-  re 

elea    the  Golden  iJuid  while  the  pn  na 
■  *    douth    "  leok  for  the  other  ships  \hiu  huu 

rted  compa  y  durii^  the  two  months'  storm, 
i'hese  were  never  fmnd,  the  ElizaM  and  the 
Swan  having  gone  home  aft»  parting  company 
in  the  storm  that  sssk  Marigold,  AMfr  a 
prdoiiged  search  the  «n  Hind  stood  iMrth 
again.    Meanwhile  the  ^ng  news  ol  h«F 

arrival  was  spreading  disi  J]  over  the  coast, 
where  tlu-  old  Spanisli  or's  plans  were 

totally  upset.  The  Indians  had  just  been  de- 
feated when  this  strange  ship  came  sailing  in 
from  nowhere,  to  the  utter  confusion  of  their 
•■nemies  The  governor  died  o'  \>^xation,  and  all 
the  Spanish  authorities  were  near  •  w(  .  ried  to 
death.  They  had  never  dreamt  of  such  an  inva- 
sion.   Their  crews  were  small,  their  lumbering 


180  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

vessels  very  lightly  armed,  their  towns  unforti- 
fied. 

But  Drake  went  faster  by  sea  than  their  news 
by  land.  Every  vessel  was  overhauled,  taken, 
searched,  emptied  of  its  treasure,  and  then  sent 
back  with  its  crew  and  passengers  at  liberty. 
One  day  a  watering  party  chanced  upon  a  Span- 
iard from  Potosi  fast  asleep  with  thirteen  bars 
of  silver  by  him.  The  bars  were  lifted  quietly 
and  the  Spaniard  left  sleeping  peacefully.  An- 
other Spaniard  suddenly  came  round  a  comer 
with  half  a  ton  of  silver  on  eight  llamas.  The 
Indians  came  off  to  trade;  and  Drake,  as  usual, 
made  friends  with  them  at  once.  He  had  already 
been  attacked  by  other  Indians  on  both  coasts. 
But  this  was  because  the  unknown  English  had 
been  mistaken  for  the  hated  Spaniards. 

As  he  neared  Lima,  Drake  quickened  his  pace 
lest  the  great  annual  treasure  ship  of  1579  should 
get  wind  of  what  was  wrong.  A  minor  treasure 
ship  was  found  to  have  been  deared  of  all  her 
silver  just  in  time  to  balk  him.  So  he  set  every 
sdtch  of  canvas  she  possessed  and  left  her  driving 
out  to  sea  with  two  other  empty  prizes.  Then 
he  stole  into  Lima  after  dark  and  came  to  anchor 
surrounded  by  Spanish  vessels  not  one  of  whidi 


•  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE '  131 
had  set  a  watch.  They  were  found  nearly  empty. 
But  a  ship  from  Panama  looked  promising;  so 
the  pinnace  started  after  her,  but  was  fired  on 
and  an  Englishman  was  killed.  Drake  then  fol- 
lowed her,  after  cutting  every  cable  in  the  harbor, 
which  soon  became  a  pandemonium  of  vessels 
gone  adrift.  The  Panama  ship  had  nothing  of 
great  value  except  her  news,  which  was  that  the 
great  treasure  ship  NueMra  Seflora  de  la  Concep- 
eion,  'the  chief  est  glory  of  the  whole  South  Sea,* 
was  on  her  way  to  Panama. 

She  had  a  very  long  start;  and,  as  ill  luck  would 
have  it,  Drake  got  becalmed  outside  Callao, 
where  the  bells  rang  out  m  wild  alarm.  The 
news  had  spread  inland  and  the  Viceroy  of  Peru 
came  hurrying  down  with  all  the  troops  that  he 
could  muster.  Finding  from  some  arrows  that 
the  strangers  were  Englishmen,  he  put  four  hun- 
dred soldiers  into  the  only  two  vessels  that  had 
escaped  the  general  wreck  produced  by  Drake's 
cutting  of  the  cables.  WTien  Drake  saw  the  two 
pursuing  craft,  he  took  back  his  prize  crew  from 
the  Panama  vessel,  into  which  he  put  his  prisoners. 
Meanwhile  a  breeze  sprang  up  and  he  soon  drew 
far  ahead.  The  Spanish  soldiers  overhauled  the 
Panama  prise  and  gladly  gave  up  the  pursuit. 


132  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

They  had  no  guns  of  any  size  with  which  to 
fight  the  Golden  Hind;  and  most  of  them  woe 
so  sea-sick  from  the  heaving  ground-swell  that 
they  couldn't  have  boarded  her  in  any  case. 

Three  more  prizes  were  then  taken  by  the 
swift  Golden  Hind.  Each  one  had  news  which 
showed  that  Drake  was  closing  on  the  chase.  An- 
other week  passed  with  every  stitch  of  canvas 
set.  A  fourth  prize,  taken  off  Cape  San  Fran- 
cisco, said  that  the  treasure  ship  was  only  one 
day  ahead.  But  she  was  getting  near  to  Panama; 
so  every  nerve  was  strained  anew.  Presently 
Jack  Drake,  the  Captain's  page,  yelled  out  Sail- 
hol  and  scrambled  down  the  mainmast  to  get 
the  golden  chain  that  Drake  had  promised  to  the 
first  lookout  who  saw  the  chase.  It  was  ticklish 
work,  so  near  to  Panama;  and  local  winds  might 
ruin  all.  So  Drake,  in  order  not  to  frighten  her, 
trailed  a  dozen  big  empty  wine  jars  over  the 
stem  to  moderate  his  pace.  At  eight  o'clock  the 
jars  woe  cut  adrift  and  the  Golden  Hind  sprang 
forward  with  the  evening  breeze,  her  crew  at 
battle  quarters  and  het  dedcs  all  deared  for  actbo. 
The  chaae  was  called  the  'Spitfire'  by  the  Span- 
iards because  she  was  much  better  anra^  than 
any  other  vessdl  there.   But,  all  the  «^^  re,  her 


•  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL   .IE  WORLDE '  133 

armament  was  nothing  for  her  tonnage.  The 
Spaniards  trusted  to  their  remoteness  for  protec- 
tion; and  that  was  their  undoing. 

To  every  Englishman's  amazement  the  chase 
was  seen  to  go  about  and  calmly  come  to  hail  the 
Golden  Hind,  whidi  she  mistook  for  a  despatch 
vessel  sent  after  her  with  some  message  from  the 
Viceroy!  Drake,  asking  nothing  better,  ran  up 
alongside  as  Anton  her  captain  hailed  him  with 
a  Who  are  youf  A  ship  of  CkUi!  answered  Drake. 
Anton  looked  down  on  the  stranger's  deck  to  see 
it  full  of  armed  men  from  whom  a  roar  of  triumph 
came.    English!  strike  sail!  Then  Drake's  wiiistle 
blew  sharply  and  instant  silence  followed;  on 
which  he  hailed  Don  knton:  ~  Strike  sail!  Sefuyr 
Juan  de  Anton,  or  I  must  send  you  to  the  bottomi 
— Come  aboard  and  do  it  yourself  I  bravely  an- 
swered Anton.    Drake's  whistle  blew  one  shrill 
long  blast,  which  loosed  a  withering  volley  at  less 
than  point-blank  range.    Anton  tried  to  bear 
away  and  shake  oflF  his  assailant.    But  in  vain. 
The  English  guns  now  opened  on  his  masts  and 
rigging.   Down  came  the  mizzen,  whfle  a  hail  of 
English  shot  and  arrows  prevented  every  attempt 
to  clear  away  the  wreckage.   The  dumbfounded 
Spanidi  crew  ran  below.   Don  Anton  looked 


134  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

overside  to  port;  and  there  was  the  English 
pinnace,  from  which  forty  English  boarders  were 
nimbly  climbing  up  his  own  ship's  side.  Resist- 
ance was  hopeless;  so  Anton  struck  and  was 
taken  aboard  the  Golden  Hind.  There  he  met 
Drake,  who  was  already  taking  off  his  armor. 
'Accept  with  patience  the  usage  of  war,'  said 
Drake,  laying  his  hand  on  Anton's  shoulder. 

For  all  that  night,  next  day,  and  the  next  night 
following  Drake  sailed  west  with  his  fabulous  prize 
so  as  to  get  well  dear  of  the  trade  route  along  the 
coast.  What  the  whole  treasure  was  has  neva 
been  revealed.  But  it  certainly  amounted  to 
the  equivalent  of  many  millions  at  the  presoit 
day..  Among  the  official  items  were:  13  chests 
of  pieces  of  eight,  80  lbs.  of  pure  gold,  jewels  and 
plate,  26  ton  weight  of  silver,  and  sundries 
un  specified.  As  the  Spanish  pilot's  son  looked  over 
the  rail  at  this  astounding  sight,  the  Englishmen 
called  out  to  say  that  his  father  was  no  longer  the 
pilot  of  the  old  Spit-fire  but  of  the  new  S>pit-silver. 

The  prisoners  were  no  less  gratified  than  sur- 
prised by  Drake's  kind  treatment.  He  enter- 
tained Don  Anton  at  a  banquet,  took  him  all  over 
the  Golden  Hind,  and  entrusted  him  with  a  mes- 
sage to  Don  Martin,  the  traitor  of  San  Juan  de 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE '  135 

Ulua.  This  was  to  say  that  if  Don  Martin  hanged 
any  more  Englishmen,  as  he  had  just  hanged 
Oxenham,  he  should  soon  be  given  a  present  of 
two  thousand  Spanish  heads.  Then  Drake  gave 
every  Spanish  officer  and  man  a  personal  gift 
proportioned  to  his  rank,  put  all  his  accumulated 
prisoners  aboard  the  emptied  treasure  ship, 
wished  them  a  prosperous  voyage  and  better 
luck  next  time,  furnished  the  brave  Don  Anton 
with  a  letter  of  protection  in  case  he  should  fall 
in  with  an  English  vessel,  and,  after  many  expres- 
sions of  goodwill  on  both  sides,  sailed  north,  the 
voyage  'made';  while  the  poor  *  spit-silver*  treasure 
ship  turned  sadly  east  and  steered  for  Panama. 


Lima,  Panama,  and  Nombre  de  Dios  were  in 
wild  commotion  at  the  news;  and  every  sailor  and 
soldier  that  the  Spaniards  had  was  going  to  and 
fro,  uncertain  whether  to  attack  or  to  defend,  and 
still  more  distracted  as  to  the  most  elusive  Eng- 
lish whereabouts.  One  good  Spanish  captain, 
Don  Pedro  Sarmiento  de  Gamboa,  was  all  for 
going  north,  his  instinct  telling  him  that  Drake 
would  not  come  bade  among  the  angry  bees  aftor 
stealing  all  the  honey.  But,  by  the  time  the 
Captain-General  of  New  Spain  had  made  up  his 


186         EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

wild  to  take  one  of  the  many  wrong  directions 

he  had  been  thinking  of,  Drake  was  aheady 

far  on  his  way  north  to  found  New  Albion. 

Drake's  triumph  over  all  difficulties  had  won 
the  hearts  of  his  men  more  than  ever  before, 
while  the  capture  of  the  treasure  ship  had  done 
nothing  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  discipline.  Don 
Francisco  de  Zarate  wrote  a  very  intimate  account 
of  his  experience  as  a  prisoner  on  board  the 
Golden  Hind.  'The  English  captain  is  one  of  the 
greatest  mariners  at  sea,  alike  from  his  skill  and 
his  powers  oi  command.  His  ship  is  a  very  fast 
sailer  and  h«  men  are  all  skilled  hands  of  warlike 
age  and  so  well  trained  that  they  might  be  old 
soldim  of  the  Itdiaa  tertias,*  the  crack  corps  of 
the  age  in  Spanish  eyes.  'He  is  served  with 
much  plate  and  has  all  possible  kinds  of  deUcades 
and  scents,  many  of  which  he  says  the  Queen  t4 
England  gave  him.  None  of  the  gentlemen  nt 
or  cover  in  his  presence  without  first  being  or- 
dered to  do  so.  They  dine  and  sup  to  the  music 
of  violins.  His  galleon  carries  about  thirty  guns 
and  a  great  deal  of  ammunition.'  This  was  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  common  Spanish  practice, 
even  on  the  Atlantic  side.  The  greedy  exploiters 
of  New  Spain  grudged  every  ton  of  armament 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OP  ALL  THE  WORLDE » 18? 
and  every  well-trained  fighting  sailor,  both  cn 
account  of  the  expense  and  because  this  form  of 
protection  took  up  room  they  wished  to  fill  with 
merchandise.  The  result  wi>  '  course,  that  they 
lost  more  by  capture  than  stained  by  evad- 
ing the  regulation  about  the  proper  armament. 
•His  ship  is  not  only  of  the  very  latest  type  but 
sheathed.  *  Before  copper  sheathing  was  invented 
some  generations  later,  the  Teredo  worm  used  to 
honeycomb  unprotected  hulls  in  the  most  danger- 
ous way.  John  Hawkins  invented  the  sheathing 
used  by  Drake:  a  good  thick  tar-and-hair  sheeting 
clamped  on  with  elm. 

Northwest  to  Coronado,  then  to  Aguatulco, 
then  fifteen  hundred  miles  due  west,  brought 
Drake  about  that  distance  south-by-east  of  the 
modem  San  Francisco.  Here  he  turned  north- 
north-west  and,  giving  the  land  a  wide  berth, 
went  on  to  perhaps  the  latitude  of  Vancouver 
Island,  always  looking  for  the  reverse  way  through 
America  by  the  fabled  Northwest  Passage.  Either 
there  was  the  most  extraordinary  June  cvct 
known  in  California  and  Oregon,  or  else  the  nar- 
ratives of  those  on  board  have  all  been  hopelessly 
confused,  for  freezing  rain  is  said  to  have  fallen 
on  the  night  of  June  the  Sd  in  the  latitude  of  42". 


138  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

In  48"  'there  followed  most  vile,  thick,  and 
stinking  fogs'  with  still  more  numbing  cold.  The 
meat  froze  when  taken  o£F  the  fire.  The  wet 
rigging  turned  to  icicles.  Six  men  could  hardly 
do  the  work  of  three.  Fresh  from  the  tropics, 
the  crews  were  unfit  for  going  any  farther.  A 
tremendous  nor 'wester  settled  the  question,  any- 
way; and  Drake  ran  south  to  38"  SO',  where, 
in  what  is  now  Drake's  Bay,  he  came  to  anchor 
just  north  of  San  Francisco. 

Not  more  than  once,  if  ever  at  all,  and  that  a 
generation  earlier,  had  Europeans  been  in  northern 
California.  The  Indians  took  the  Englishmen 
for  gods  whom  they  knew  not  whether  to  love  or 
fear.  Drake  with  the  essential  kindliness  of  most, 
and  the  magnetic  power  of  all,  great  bom  comman- 
ders, soon  won  the  natives'  confidence.  But 
their  admiration  'as  men  ravished  in  their  minds' 
was  rather  overpowering;  for,  after  'a  kirsd  of 
most  lamentable  weeping  and  crying  out,'  they 
came  forward  with  various  offerings  for  the  new- 
found gods,  prostrating  themselves  in  humble 
adoration  and  tearing  their  breasts  and  faces  in  a 
wild  desire  to  show  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice. 
Drake  and  his  men,  all  Protestants,  were  horrified 
at  being  made  what  they  considered  idols.  So, 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE '  189 
kneeling  down,  they  prayed  aloud,  raising  hands 

and  eyes  to  Heaven,  hoping  thereby  to  show  the 
heathen  where  the  true  God  lived.  Drake  then 
read  the  Bible  and  all  the  Englishmen  sang 
Psalms,  the  Indians,  'observing  the  end  of  every 
pause,  with  one  voice  still  cried  Oh!  greatly  re- 
joicing in  our  exercises.'  As  this  impromptu 
service  ended  the  Indians  gave  back  all  the  pre- 
sents Drake  had  given  them  and  retired  in  attitudes 
of  adoration. 

In  three  days  more  they  returned,  headed 
by  a  Medidne-man,  whom  the  English  called 
the  'mace-bearer.*   With  the  slow  and  stately 
measure  of  a  mystic  dance  this  great  high  priest 
of  heathen  rites  advanced  chanting  a  sort  of  litany. 
Both  litany  and  dance  were  graduaDy  taken  up 
by  tens,  by  hundreds,  and  finally  by  all  the 
thousands  of  the  devotees,  who  addressed  Drake 
with  shouts  of  Hyohl  and  mvested  him  with  a 
headdress  of  rare  plumage  and  a  necklace  of  quaint 
beads.    It  was,  in  fact,  a  native  coronation  with- 
out a  soul  to  doubt  the  divine  right  of  their  new 
king.    Drake's  Protestant  scruples  were  quieted 
by  thinking  'to  what  good  end  God  had  brought 
this  to  pass,  and  what  honour  and  profit  it  m* 
bring  to  our  country  in  time  to  come.   So,  in 


140  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

the  name  and  to  the  use  of  her  most  excellent 
Majesty,  he  took  the  sceptre,  crown,  and  dignity' 
and  proclaimed  an  English  protectorate  over  the 
land  he  called  New  Albion.  He  then  set  up  a 
brass  pljite  commemorating  this  procluraation, 
antl  put  an  English  coin  in  the  middle  so  that  the 
Indians  might  see  Elizabeth's  portrait  and  armorial 
device. 

The  exaltation  of  the  ecstatic  devotees  con- 
tinued till  the  day  he  left.  They  crowded  in  to  be 
cured  by  the  touch  of  his  hand  —  those  were  the 
times  in  which  the  soverei^  was  expected  to 
cure  the  King's  Evil  by  a  touch.  They  also 
expected  to  be  cured  by  inhaling  the  divine  breath 
of  any  one  among  the  English  gods.  The  chi^ 
narrator  adds  that  the  gods  who  pleased  the 
Indians  most,  braves  and  squaws  included,  'were 
commonly  the  youngest  of  us,'  which  shows  that 
the  human  was  not  quite  forgotten  in  the  all- 
divine.  When  the  time  for  sailing  came,  the 
devotees  were  inconsolable.  'They  not  only  in 
a  sudden  did  lose  all  mirth,  joy,  glad  countenance, 
pfeasant  speeches,  agility  of  body,  and  all  pleasure, 
but,  with  sighs  and  sorrowings,  they  poured  out 
woefull  complayntes  and  moans  with  bitter  tears, 
and  wringing  of  their  hands,  and  tormenting  of 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WCmDE '  141 
themselves/  Hie  last  the  Englisti  ww  of  them 
was  the  whde  devoted  tribe  assembled  on  the 

hill  around  a  sacrificial  fire,  whence  they  implored 
their  gods  to  bring  their  heaven  bade  to  earth. 


From  California  Drake  sailed  lo  the  Philippines; 
and  then  to  the  Moluccas,  where  the  Portuguese 
liiul,  if  such  u  filing  were  possible,  outdone  even 
(he  Spaniards  in  their  fiendish  dealings  with  the 
natives.   Lopez  de  Mosquito — viler  than  his  pes- 
tilential name — had  murdered  the  Sultan,  who 
was  then  his  guest,  chopped  up  the  body,  and 
thrown  it  into  the  sea.    Baber,  the  Sultan's  son, 
had  driven  out  the  Portuguese  from  the  i^iland 
of  Temate  and  was  preparing  to  do  likewise 
from  the  idbnd  oi  Tid<»e,  whm  Drake  arrived. 
Baber  then  offered  Drake,  for  Queen  Elizabeth, 
the  complete  monopoly  of  the  trade  in  spices  if 
only  Drake  would  use  the  Oclden  Hind  as  the 
flagship  against  the  Portuguese.   Drake's  recep- 
tion was  full  of  Oriental  state;  and  &iltan  Baber 
was  so  entranced  by  Drake's  musidans  that  he 
sat  all  afternoon  among  them  in  a  boat  towed  by 
the  Golden  Hind.   But  it  was  too  great  a  risk  to 
take  a  hand  in  this  new  war  with  only  ufty-siz 
men  left.   So  Drake  traded  for  all  the  spices  he 


142  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

could  stow  awny  and  concluded  a  sort  of  under- 
standing which  formed  the  sheet  anchor  of  English 
diplomacy  in  En  stem  seas  for  another  century 
to  come.  Elizabeth  was  so  delighted  with  this 
result  that  she  gave  Drake  a  cup  (still  at  the 
family  seat  of  Nutwell  Court  in  Devonshire) 
engravcvl  with  a  picture  of  his  reception  by  the 
Sultan  Baber  of  Ternate. 

L«>aving  Ternate,  the  Golden  Uind  beat  to  and 
fro  among  the  tortuous  and  only  half-known 
channels  of  the  Archipelago  till  the  9th  of  Tanu- 
ary,  1580,  when  she  bore  away  before  a  roaring 
trade  wind  with  all  sail  set  and,  so  far  as  Drake 
could  tell,  a  good  dear  course  for  home.  But 
suddenly,  without  a  moment's  warning,  there 
was  a  most  torrific  shock.  Tbe  gallant  ship 
reared  like  a  stricken  uharger,  plunged  fwward, 
grinding  ha  trembling  hull  against  the  rocks, 
and  then  lay  pounding  out  h«T  life  upon  a  reef. 
Drake  and  his  men  at  once  to(^  in  half  the  strain- 
ing sails;  then  knelt  in  prayer;  then  rose  to  see 
what  could  be  done  by  earthly  means.  To  their 
dismay  there  was  no  holding  ground  on  which 
to  get  an  anchor  fast  and  warp  the  ves.s  1  off. 
The  lead  could  find  no  bottom  anywhere  aft. 
All  night  long  the  Golden  Hind  remained  fast  caught 


*  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  IHE  WOBLDE  *  148 
in  this  inttdioui  deaUi-trmp.  At  dawn  Parson 
Fletcher  preached  a  aermm  and  administered 
the  Blessed  Sacrament.   Then  Drake  ordered 

ten  tons  overboard  —  cannon,  cloves,  and  provi- 
sions.   The  tide  was  now  low  and  she  sewed  seven 
feet,  her  draught  being  thirteen  and  the  depth  of 
water  oiil\  six.    Still  she  kept  an  even  keel  as  the 
reef  WHS  to  leeward  and  she  had  just  sail  enough 
to  hold  her  up.    But  at  high  tide  in  the  afternoon 
tliere  wa.s  a  lull  and  she  began  to  heel  over  to- 
wards   the    unfathomable   depths.    Just  then, 
however,  a  quiver  ran  through  her  from  stem  to 
stem;  an  extra  sail  that  Drake  had  i  rdercd  up 
caught  what  little  wind  there  was;  and,  with  the 
last  thixtb  ot  the  rising  tide,  she  shook  hersdl  free 
nr.  ^   >ok  the  water  as  quietly  as  if  her  hull  mm  be- 
inT  ..  „  n  !  d.   There  were  perils  enough  to  follow: 
dan   i .  ci  navigation,  tbe  arrival  <rf  a  Partu- 
guebi  rieet  that  was  only  jus-  ♦  luf^ed,  and  all  ti» 
ordinary  risks  of  travel  in  i  ae-  when  what  migM 
be  called  the  official  guide  to  voyagers  opensd 
with  the  .  t  iinous  ad'    \  F^'r  '  make  thy  WM. 
But  the  greatest  had  now  been  safely  passed. 


Meanwhile  all  sorts  of  rumors  were  rife  in  Spain, 
New  Spain,  tuiil  England.   Drake  had  been 


144  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

hanged.  That  rumor  came  from  the  hanging  of 
John  Oxenham  at  Lima.  The  Golden  Hind  had 
foundered.  That  tale  was  what  Winter,  captain 
of  the  Elizabeth,  was  not  altogether  unwilling 
should  be  thought  after  his  own  failure  to  face 
another  great  antarctic  storm.  He  had  returned 
in  1578.  News  from  Peru  and  Mexico  came  home 
in  1579;  but  no  Drake.  So,  as  1580  wore  on, 
his  friends  began  to  despair,  the  Spaniards  and 
Portuguese  rejoiced,  while  Burleigh,  with  all  who 
found  Drake  an  inconvenience  in  their  diplomatic 
way,  b^an  to  hope  that  perhaps  the  sea  had 
smoothed  things  over.  In  August  the  London 
merchants  were  thrown  into  consternation  by 
the  report  of  Drake's  incredible  captures;  for 
their  own  merchant  fleet  was  just  then  off  for 
Spain.  They  waited  on  the  Council,  who  soothed 
them  with  the  assurance  that  Drake's  voyage  was 
a  purely  private  venture  so  far  as  prizes  were 
concerned.  With  this  diplomatic  quibble  they 
were  forced  to  be  content. 

But  worse  was  soon  *o  follow.  The  king  of 
Portugal  died.  Philip's  army  marched  on  Lisbon 
immediately,  and  all  the  Portuguese  possessions 
were  added  to  the  already  overgrown  empire  of 
Spain.   Worse  still,  this  annexation  gave  Philip 


'  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE  *  145 

what  he  wanted  in  the  way  of  ships;  im  Portugal 
had  more  than  Spain.  The  Great  Armada  was 
now  expected  to  be  formed  against  England, 
unless  Elizabeth's  miraculous  diplomacy  could 
once  more  get  her  clear  of  the  fast-entangling 
coils.  To  add  to  the  general  confusion,  this 
was  also  the  year  in  which  the  Pope  sent  his 
picked  Jesuits  to  England,  and  m  which  Eliza- 
beth was  carrying  on  her  last  great  inteniational 
flirtation  with  ugly,  dissipated  Francis  of  Anjou, 
brother  to  the  king  of  France. 

Into  this  imbroglio  sailed  the  Golden  Hind  with 
ballast  ct  ulver  and  cai^  of  gold.  'Is  Her 
Majesty  alive  and  well?'  said  Drake  to  the  first 
sail  outside  of  Plymouth  Sound.  'Ay,  ay,  she 
is,  my  Master/  answered  the  skipper  of  a  fishing 
smack,  'but  there's  a  deal  o'  sidmen  hoe  in 
Plymouth';  on  which  Drake,  ready  for  any  excuse 
to  stay  afloat,  came  to  ai^or  in  the  harbor.  His 
wife,  pretty  Mary  Newman  from  the  banks  of 
Tavy,  took  boat  to  see  him,  as  did  the  Mayor, 
whose  business  was  to  warn  him  to  keep  quiet 
till  his  course  was  clear.  So  Drake  wrote  off  to 
the  Queen  and  all  the  Councillors  who  were  on 
his  side.  The  answer  from  the  Councillors  was 
aot  encouraging;  so  he  warped  out  quietly  and 

10 


146  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

anchored  again  behind  Drake's  Island  in  the  Sound. 
But  presently  the  Queen's  own  mesjage  came, 
commanding  him  to  an  audience  at  which,  she 
said,  she  would  be  pleased  to  view  some  of  the 
curiosities  he  had  brought  from  foreign  parts. 
Straight  on  that  hint  he  started  up  to  town  with 
spices,  diamonds,  pearls,  and  gold  enough  to  win 
any  woman's  pardon  and  consent. 

The  audience  lasted  six  hotira.  Meanwhile 
the  Council  sat  without  any  of  Drake's  lupporters 
and  ordoed  all  the  treasure  to  be  in^unded  in 
the  Tower.  But  Leicester,  Walringham,  and  Hat- 
ton,  all  members  oi  Drake's  syndicate,  refused  to 
si|pi;  while  Elizabeth  herself,  the  managing  di- 
rector, suspended  the  order  till  her  further  pleasure 
should  be  known.  The  Spanish  ambassador  '  did 
bum  with  passion  against  Drake. '  The  Council  was 
distractingly  divided.  The  London  merchants 
trembled  for  their  fleet.  But  Elizabeth  was 
determined  that  the  blow  to  Philip  should  hurt 
him  as  much  as  it  could  without  producing  an 
immediate  war;  while  down  among  Drake's  own 
•West-Countrymen  'the  case  was  clear  in  sea 
divinitie,'  as  similar  cases  had  often  been  before. 
Tremayne,  a  Devonshire  magistrate  and  friend 
of  the  syndicate,  could  hardly  find  words  to  express 


•  ENCOMPASSMENT  OF  ALL  THE  WORLDE '  147 

his  c(Hitaitment  with  Drake,  whom  he  called  'a 
man  of  great  government,  and  that  by  the  nilctf 

of  God  and  His  Book. ' 

Elizabeth  decided  to  stand  by  Drake.  She 
claimed,  what  was  true,  that  he  had  mjuicd  no 
actual  place  or  person  i*  the  King  of  Spain's, 
nothing  but  property  afloat,  appropriate  for  re- 
prisals. All  England  knew  the  story  of  Ulua 
and  approved  of  reprisals  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  the  age.  And  the  Queen  had  a  special 
grievance  about  Ireland,  where  the  Spaniards 
were  entrenched  in  Smerwick,  thus  adding  to  the 
confusion  of  a  reb^ion  that  never  quite  died 
down  at  any  time.  I%ilip  explained  that  the 
Smerwick  Spaniards  were  thoe  as  private  vdun- 
teers.  Elizabeth  answered  that  IMke  was  just 
the  same.  The  English  tide,  at  all  events,  was 
turning  in  his  favor.  The  indefatigable  Stowe, 
chronicler  of  London,  records  that  'the  people 
generally  applauded  his  wonderful  long  adven- 
tures and  rich  prizes.  His  name  and  fame  be- 
came admirable  in  all  places,  the  people  swarming 
daily  in  the  streets  to  behold  him,  vowing  hatred 
to  all  that  misliked  him. ' 

The  Golden  Hind  had  been  brought  round  to 
London,  where  she  was  the  greatest  attraction 


148  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

of  &e  day.  Finally,  on  the  4th  of  April,  1581, 
£liBJ>eth  went  on  board  in  state,  to  a  banquet 
'finer  than  has  ever  >  c«n  seen  in  England  since 
King  Henry  VIII,'  said  the  furious  Spanish  am- 
bassador in  his  report  to  Philip.  But  this  was 
not  her  chief  offence  in  Spanish  eyes.  For  here, 
surrounded  by  her  court,  and  in  the  presence  of 
an  enormous  multitude  of  her  enthusiastic  sub- 
jects, she  openly  defied  the  King  of  Spain.  *He 
hath  demanded  Drake's  head  of  me, '  she  laughed 
aloud,  'and  here  1  have  a  gilded  sword  to  strike 
it  off.'  With  that  die  bade  Drake  kneel.  Then, 
hnnding  t^  sword  to  Harc^unumt,  the  spedtH 
envoy  of  her  Froich  suitor,  Francis  of  Anj<m, 
^  ordored  him  to  give  the  accdade.  Hiis  done, 
she  fvoBoimced  the  f<»inula  of  immemotial  fame: 
I  hid  Am  riae.  Sir  Francit  Drake! 


CHAPTER  Vra 


DBAKX  CUPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN 

For  three  yean  after  Diake  had  been  dubbed 
Sir  Francis  by  the  Queen  he  was  the  hero  of 
every  class  of  Englishmen  but  two:  the  extreme 
Soman  Cathdics,  who  wanted  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  and  the  merchants  who  were  doing  business 
with  Portugal  and  Spain.   The  Marian  exposition 
to  the  general  policy  of  England  persisted  for  a  few 
years  longer.    But  the  merchants  who  were  the 
inheritors  of  centuries  of  ccmmiacial  intercourse 
with  England's  new  enemies  were  soon  to  receive 
a  shock  that  completely  changed  their  minds. 
They  were  themselves  one  of  the  strongest  fac- 
tors that  made  for  war  in   the  knotty  prob- 
lem now  to  be  solved  at  the  cannon's  mouth 
because  English  trade  was  seekin^r  new  outlets 
in  every  direction  and  was  beating  hard  against 
every  door  that  fordgners   shut   in  its  face. 
These  merdiants  would  not,  however,  support 
the  war  party  till  they  were  forced  to,  as  they 

MS 


150  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

still  hoped  to  gain  by  other  means  what  only 
war  could  win. 

The  year  that  Drake  came  home  (1580)  Philip 
at  last  got  hold  of  a  sea-going  fleet,  the  eleven  big 
Portuguese  galleons  taken  when  Lisbon  fell.  With 
the  Portuguese  ships,  sailors,  and  oversea  posses- 
sions, with  more  galleons  under  construction  at 
Santander  in  Spain,  and  with  the  galleons  of  the 
Indian  Guard  built  by  the  great  Menendez  to  pro- 
tect New  Spain:  with  all  this  performed  or  prom- 
ised, Philip  b^an  to  feel  as  if  the  hour  was  at 
hand  when  he  could  do  to  England  what  she  had 
done  to  him. 

In  1583  Santa  Cruz,  the  best  Spanish  admiral 
since  the  death  of  Menendez,  proposed  to  form  the 
nucleus  of  the  Great  Armada  out  of  the  fleet  with 
which  he  had  just  broken  down  the  last  vestige  of 
Portuguese  resistance  in  the  Azores.  From  that  day 
on,  the  idea  was  never  dropped.  At  the  same  time 
Elizabeth  discovered  the  Paris  Plot  between  Mary 
and  Philip  and  the  Catholics  of  France,  all  of  whom 
were  bent  on  her  destruction.  England  stood  to 
arms.  But  false  ideas  of  naval  defence  were  upper- 
most in  the  Queen's  Council.  No  attempt  was 
made  to  strike  a  concentrated  blow  at  the  heart  of 
the  enemy's  fleet  in  his  own  waters.   Instead  of 


DRAKE  CLIPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  151 

this  the  English  ships  were  carefully  divided  among 
Ihe  three  squadrons  meant  to  defend  the  ap- 
proaches to  Englan.i,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  he- 
cause,  as  the  Queen-in-Council  sagely  remarked, 
who  could  be  expected  to  know  what  the  enemy's 
point  of  attack  would  be?  The  fact  is  that  when 
wielding  the  ^>rces  oi  the  fleet  and  army  the  Queen 
and  most  of  her  n<m-combatant  councillu^  never 
quite  reached  that  supreme  point  of  view  from 
which  the  greatest  stateanea  see  exactly  where 
civil  control  ends  and  dvi&n  interference  b^ns. 
Ludcily  for  England,  thcar  mistakes  were  once 
more  covered  up  by  a  toun  of  the  international 
k&leidofloope. 

No  sooner  had  the  immediate  danger  of  a  great 
combined  attack  on  England  passed  away  thun 
EUzabeth  returned  tc  Drake's  plan  for  a  regular 
raid  against  New  S|  uin,  though  it  had  to  be  one 
that  was  not  designed  to  bring  on  war  in  Europe. 
Drake,  who  was  a  memtjer  of  ^he  Navy  Board 
charged  with  the  reoriraiiiiiatiou  of  the  fleet,  was 
to  have  command.  The  -.hips  and  men  were  rauiy. 
But  the  time  had  not  _     ( ume. 

Nert  year  (1584)  ^imadas  and  Barlow,  Sir 
Wa^  Hahngh's  two  tjia^eetcRs  for  the  'planta- 
tion' of  Viij^BBa,  weee  being  dstighted  with  the 


154  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

summer  lands  and  waters  of  what  is  now  North 
Carolina.  We  shall  soon  hear  more  of  Raleigh 
and  his  vision  of  the  West.  But  at  this  time  a 
good  many  important  events  were  happening  in 
Europe;  and  it  is  these  that  we  must  follow  first. 

William  of  Orange,  the  Washington  of  Holland, 
was  assassinated  at  Philip's  instigation,  while  plots 
to  kill  Elizabeth  and  place  Mary  on  the  throne 
began  to  multiply.  The  agents  were  executed, 
while  a  'Bond  of  Association'  was  signed  by  all 
Elizabeth's  chief  supporters,  binding  them  to 
hunt  down  and  kill  all  who  tried  to  kill  hei^-a 
plain  hint  for  Mary  Qaeen  of  Scots  to  stop  plotting 
or  stand  the  consequences. 

But  the  merchants  trading  with  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal were  more  than  ever  for  keeping  on  good 
terms  with  Philip  because  the  failure  of  the  Spanish 
harvest  had  induced  him  to  otfer  them  special 
protection  and  encouragement  if  they  would  sup- 
ply his  country's  needs  at  once.  Every  avaii- 
able  ton  of  shipping  was  accordingly  taken  up  for 
Spain.  The  English  merchant  fleet  went  out,  and 
big  profits  seemed  assured.  But  presently  the 
Primrose^  'a  tall  ship  of  London, '  came  flying  home 
to  say  that  Philip  had  suddenly  seized  the  mer- 
chandise, imprisoned  the  men,  and  taken  the  ships 


DRAKE  CLIPS  THE  ^NGS  OF  SPAIN  15S 

and  guns  for  use  with  the  Great  Armada.  That 
was  the  last  straw.  The  peaceful  traders  now  saw 
that  they  were  wrong  and  that  the  fighting  ones 
were  right;  and  for  the  first  time  both  could  rejoice 
over  the  clever  trick  by  which  John  Hawkins  had 
got  his  own  again  from  Philip.  In  1571,  three 
years  after  Don  Martin's  treachery  at  San  Juan 
de  Ulua,  Hawkins,  while  commanding  the  Scilly 
Island  squadron,  led  the  Spanish  ambassador  to 
believe  that  he  would  go  over  to  the  Spanish  cause 
in  Ireland  if  his  claims  for  damages  were  only  paid 
in  full  find  all  his  surviving  men  in  Mexico  were 
sent  home.  The  cold  and  crafty  Philip  swallowed 
this  tempting  bait;  sent  the  mea  home  with  Span- 
ish dollars  in  their  pockets,  and  paid  Hawkins 
forty  thousand  pounds,  the  worth  of  about  two 
million  dollars  now.  Then  Hawkins  used  the  in- 
formation he  had  picked  up  behind  the  Spanish 
scenes  to  unravel  the  Ridolfi  Plot  for  putting 
Mary  on  the  throne  in  1.5V2,  the  year  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew.   No  wonder  Philip  hated  sea-dogs! 

Things  new  and  old  having  reached  thii>  pass, 
the  whole  of  England,  bar  the  Marians,  were 
eager  for  the  great  'Indies  Voyage'  of  1585. 
Londoners  crowded  down  to  Woolwich  'with  great 
jolitie'  to  see  off  their  own  contingent  on  its  way 


1  I  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

to  join  Drake's  flag  at  Plymouth.  Very  probably 
Shiikespeare  wi  tit  down  t<K),  for  that  famous  Lon- 
don merchant mui  fhe  Tiger,  to  which  he  twice 
alludes — once  in  Machdh  and  once  in  Twelfth 
Night — was  off  with  this  contingent.  Such  a 
private  fleet  had  never  y«  t  been  seen:  twenty-one 
ships,  eight  smart  pinaaces,  and  twenty-three 
hund  -ed  men  of  every  rank  and  rating.  The 
Queen  was  principal  shareholder  and  managing 
director.  But,  as  usual  in  colonial  attadv  in- 
tended for  disavowal  if  necessity  arose,  no  pros- 
pectus or  other  document  was  published,  nor  were 
the  shareholders  of  this  joint-stock  company 
known  in  any  quite  oflicial  way.  It  was  the  size 
of  the  fleet  and  the  reputation  of  the  oflicers  that 
made  it  a  national  affair.  Drake,  now  forty, 
was 'Admiral';  Frobisher,  of  North-West-Passage 
fame,  was '  V^ice*;  Knollys,  the  Qu(>en's  own  cousin, 
'Rear.'  Carleill,  a  famous  general,  commanded 
the  troops  and  sailed  in  Shakespeare's  Tiger. 
Drake's  old  crew  from  the  Golden  Hind  came  for- 
ward to  a  man,  among  them  Wright,  'that  excel- 
lent mathematician  and  ingineer,'  and  big  Tom 
Moone,  the  Hon  of  all  boarding-parties,  each  in 
command  of  a  ship. 
But  Elizabeth  was  just  then  weaving  the  threada 


DRAKE  CUPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  155 
of  an  unusually  intricate  diplomatic  pattern;  m 

doubts  and  delays,  orders  and  counterswden 
vexed  Drake  to  the  lust.  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  too, 
came  down  as  a  volunteer;  which  was  another  aore 
vexation,  since  his  European  fame  would  have 
made  him  practically  joint  commander  of  the 
fleet,  although  he  was  not  a  naval  o65cer  at  all. 
But  he  had  the  good  sense  to  go  back;  whereupon 
Drake,  fearing  further  interruptions  from  the 
court,  ordered  everything  to  be  tumbled  into  the 
nearest  ships  and  hurried  off  to  sea  under  a  press 
of  sail. 

The  first  port  of  call  was  Vigo  in  the  north- 
western comer  of  Spain,  where  Drake's  envoy  told 
the  astonished  governor  that  Eliiabeth  wanted  to 
know  what  Philip  intended  doing  about  embargoes 
now.  If  the  governor  wanted  peace,  he  must 
listen  to  Drake's  aiguments;  if  war— well,  Drake 
was  ready  to  begin  at  once.  A  three-days'  storm 
interrupted  the  proceedings;  after  which  the 
English  intercepted  tlie  fugitive  townsfolk  whose 
flight  showed  that  the  governor  meant  to  make  a 
stand,  though  he  had  said  the  embargo  had  been 
lifted  and  that  all  the  English  prisoners  were  at 
liberty  to  ^'o.  Some  English  sailors,  however, 
were  still  being  held;  so  Drake  sent  in  an  armed 


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156  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

party  and  brought  them  off,  with  a  good  pfle  of 
reprisal  booty  too.  Then  he  put  to  sea  and  made 
for  the  Spanish  Mam  by  way  of  the  Portuguese 
African  islands. 

The  plan  of  campaign  drawn  up  for  Burleigh's 
information  still  exists.  It  shows  that  Drake,  the 
consummate  raider,  was  also  an  admiral  of  the  high- 
est kind.  The  items,  showing  how  long  each  part 
should  take  and  what  loot  each  place  should  yield, 
are  exact  and  interesting.  But  it  is  in  the  relation 
of  every  part  to  every  other  part  and  to  the  whole 
that  the  original  genius  of  the  bom  commander 
shines  forth  in  all  its  glory.  After  taking  San 
Domingo  he  was  to  sack  Margarita,  La  Hacha,  and 
Santa  Marta,  razing  their  fortifications  as  he  left. 
Cartagena  and  Nombre  de  Dios  came  next.  Then 
Carleill  was  to  raid  Panama,  with  the  help  of  the 
Maroons,  while  Drake  himself  was  to  raid  the 
coast  of  Honduras.  Finally,  with  reunited  forces, 
be  would  take  Havana  and,  if  possible,  hold  it  by 
leaving  a  suflBcient  garrison  behind.  Thus  he 
would  paralyze  New  Spain  by  destroying  all  the 
points  of  junction  along  its  lines  of  communica- 
tion just  when  Philip  stood  most  in  need  of  its 
help  for  completing  the  Great  Armada. 

But,  like  a  mettlesome  steeplechaser,  Drake  took 


DRAKE  CLIPS  THE  WINGS  OP  SPAIN  157 
a  leap  in  his  stride  during  the  preliminary  canter 
before  the  great  race.   The  wind  being  foul  for  the 
Canaries,  he  went  on  to  the  Cape  Verde  archipelago 
and  captured  Santiago,  which  had  been  abandoned 
in  terror  on  the  approach  of  the  English  'Dragon,* 
that  sinister  hero  of  Lope  de  V^a's  epic  onslaught 
Im  Dragoniea.   As  good  luck  would  have  it,  Carleill 
marched  in  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Queen's  acces- 
sion, the  17th  of  November.   So  there  was  a  royal 
salute  fired  in  Her  Majesty's  honor  by  land  and  sea. 
No  treasure  was  found.   French  privateers  had 
sacked  the  place  thr-e  years  before  and  had  killed 
oflF  everyone  they  caught;  the  Portuguese,  however, 
were  not  going  to  wait  to  meet  the  English  'Dra- 
gon' too.    The  force  that  marched  inland  failed 
to  unearth  the  governor.    So  San  Domingo,  San- 
tiago, and  Porto  Praya  were  all  burnt  to  the  ground 
before  the  fleet  bore  away  for  the  West  Indies. 

San  Dommgo  in  Hispaniola  (Hayti)  was  made 
in  due  course,  but  only  after  a  virulent  epidemic 
had  seriously  thinned  the  ranks.  San  Domingo 
was  the  oldest  town  in  New  Spain  and  was  strongly 
garrisoned  and  fortified.  But  Carleill's  soldiers 
carried  all  before  them.  Drake  battered  down  the 
seaward  walls.  The  Spaniards  abandoned  the 
citadel  at  night,  and  the  English  took  the  whole 


158         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

place  as  a  New  Year's  gift  for  1586.  But  again 
there  was  no  treasure.  The  Spaniards  had  killed 
off  the  Caribs  in  war  or  in  the  mines,  so  that 
nothing  was  now  dug  out.  Moreover  the  citizens 
were  quite  on  their  guard  against  adventurers  and 
ready  to  hide  what  they  bad  in  the  most  inacces- 
sible places.  Drake  then  put  the  town  up  to  ran- 
som and  sent  out  his  own  Maroon  boy  servant  to 
bring  in  the  message  from  the  Spanish  oflBcer  pro- 
posing terms.  This  Spaniard,  hating  all  Maroons, 
"an  his  lance  through  the  boy  and  cantered  away. 
The  boy  came  back  with  the  last  ounce  of  his 
strength  and  fell  dead  at  Drake's  feet.  Drake 
sent  to  say  he  would  hang  two  Spaniards  every 
day  if  the  murderer  was  not  hanged  by  his  own 
compatriots.  As  no  one  came  he  began  with  two 
friars.  Then  the  Spaniards  brought  in  the  offender 
and  hanged  him  in  the  presence  of  both  armies. 

That  episode  cleared  the  air;  and  an  inter- 
change of  courtesies  and  hospitalities  immediately 
followed.  But  no  business  was  done.  Drake  there- 
fore began  to  bum  the  town  bit  by  bit  till  twenty- 
fire  thousand  ducats  were  paid.  It  was  very  little 
for  the  capital.  But  the  men  picked  up  a  good 
deal  of  loot  in  the  process  and  vented  their  ultra- 
Protestant  zeal  on  all  the  'graven  images'  that 


DRAKE  CLIPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  159 
were  not  worth  keeping  for  sale.    On  the  whole  the 
English  were  weU  satisfied.   They  had  taken  all 
the  Spanish  ships  and  annament  they  wanted, 
destroyed  the  rest,  liberated  over  a  hundred 
brawny  galley-slaves— some  Turks  among  them— 
all  anxious  for  revenge,  and  had  struck  a  blow  at 
Spanish  prestige  which  echoed  back  to  Europe. 
Spain  never  hid  her  light  under  a  bushel;  and  here, 
in  the  Governor's  Palace,  was  a  huge  escutcheon 
with  a  horse  standing  on  the  earth  and  pawing  at 
the  sky.  The  motto  blazoned  on  it  was  to  the  effect 
that  the  earth  itself  was  not  enough  for  Spain— iVon 
mfficii  orhis.    Drake's  humor  was  greatly  tickled, 
and  '  e  and  his  officers  kept  asking  the  Spaniards 
to  translate  the  motto  again  and  again. 

Delays  and  tempestuous  head  winds  induced 
Drake  to  let  intermediate  points  alone  and  make 
straight  for  Cartagena  on  the  South  American  mai  n- 
land.  Cartagena  had  been  warned  and  was  on  the 
alert.  It  was  strong  by  both  nature  and  art.  The 
garrison  was  good  of  its  kmd,  though  the  Spaniards' 
custom  of  fighting  m  quilted  jackets  instead  of 
armor  put  them  at  a  disadvantage.  T>is  custom 
was  due  tc  the  heat  and  to  the  fact  that  the  jackets 
were  proof  against  the  native  arrows. 
There  was  an  outer  and  an  inner  harbor,  with 


160         ELIZABETHAN  SiSA-DOGS 

such  an  intricate  and  well-defended  passage  that 
no  one  thought  Drake  would  dare  go  in.  But  he 
did.  Frobisher  had  failed  to  catch  a  pilot.  But 
Drake  did  the  trick  without  one,  to  the  utt^  dis- 
may of  the  Spaniards.  After  some  more  very 
clever  manoeuvres,  to  distract  the  enemy's  atten- 
tion from  the  real  point  of  attack,  Carleill  and  the 
soldiers  landed  under  cover  of  the  dark  and  came 
upon  the  town  where  they  were  least  expected, 
by  wading  waist-deep  through  the  water  just  out 
of  sight  of  the  Spanish  gunners.  The  entrench- 
ments did  not  bar  the  way  in  this  unexpected 
quarter.  But  wine  casks  full  of  rammed  earth  had 
been  hurriedly  piled  there  in  case  the  mad  English 
should  make  the  attempt.  Carleill  gave  Hie  signal. 
Goring's  musketeers  sprang  forward  and  fired  into 
the  Spaniards'  faces.  Then  Sampson's  pikemen 
charged  through  and  a  desperate  hand-to-hand 
fight  ensued.  Finally  the  Spaniards  broke  after 
Carleill  had  killed  their  standard-bearer  and  Gor- 
ing had  wounded  and  taken  theur  commander. 
The  enemies  ran  pell-mell  through  the  town  to- 
gether till  the  English  reformed  in  the  Plaza. 
Next  day  Drake  moved  in  to  attack  the  harbor 
fort;  whereupon  it  was  abandoned  and  the  whole 
place  fell. 


DBAKE  CLIPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  161 
But  again  there  was  a  dearth  of  booty.  The 
Spaniards  were  getting  shy  of  keeping  too  many 
valuables  where  they  could  be  taken.  So  bjgoti- 
ations,  emphasized  by  piecemeal  destruction,  went 
on  till  sickness  and  the  lateness  of  the  season  put 
the  English  in  a  sorry  fix.    The  sack  of  the  city 
had  yielded  much  less  than  that  of  San  Domingo; 
and  the  men,  who  were  all  volunteers,  to  be  paid 
out  of  plunder,  began  to  grumble  at  their  ill-success. 
Many  had  been  wounded,  several  killed  —  big, 
faithful  Tom  Moone  among  them.    A  hundred 
died.    More  were  ill.    Two  councils  of  war  were 
held,  one  naval,  the  other  military.    The  military 
oflScers  agreed  to  give  ;:p  all  theu-  own  shares  to 
the  men.    But  the  naval  oflicers,  who  were  poorer 
and  who  were  also  responsible  for  the  expenses  of 
theu:  vessels,  could  not  concur.    Finally  110,000 
ducats  (equivalent  in  purchasing  power  to  nearly 
three  millions  of  dollars)  were  accepted. 

It  was  now  unpossible  to  co  >plete  the  pro- 
gramme or  even  to  take  Havana,  in  view  of  the 
renewed  sickness,  the  losses,  and  the  advance  of 
the  season.  A  further  disf^pointment  was  ex- 
perienced when  Drake  just  missed  the  treasure 
fleet  by  only  half  a  day,  though  through  no  fault 
of  his  own.   Then,  with  constantly  diminiatiing 

IX 


162         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

numbors  oi  effective  men,  the  course  was  shaped 
for  the  Spanish  'plantation'  of  St.  Augustine  in 
Florida.  This  pUce  was  utterly  destroyed  and 
some  guns  and  money  were  taken  from  it.  Then 
the  fleet  stood  north  again  till,  on  the  9th  of  June, 
it  found  Raleigh's  colony  of  Roanoke. 

Ralph  Lane,  the  governor,  was  in  his  fort  on  the 
island  ready  to  brave  it  out.  Drake  offered  a  free 
passage  home  to  all  the  colonists.  But  Lane  pre- 
ferred staying  and  going  on  with  his  surveys  and 
'plantation.*  Di ake  then  filled  up  a  store  ship  to 
leave  behind  with  Lane.  But  a  terrific  three-day 
stv  4  wrecked  the  store  ship  and  damped  the 
colonists'  enthusiasm  so  much  that  they  persuaded 
Lane  to  change  his  mind.  The  colonists  embarked 
and  the  fleet  then  bore  away  for  home.  Though 
balked  of  much  it  had  expected  in  the  way  o! 
booty,  reduced  in  strength  by  losses,  and  therefore 
unable  to  garrison  any  i  r-  > .  .  point  which  would 
threaten  the  life  of  N.  ,  ^n,  its  purely  naval 
work  was  a  true  and  glorious  success.  When  he 
arrived  at  Plymouth,  Drake  wrote  immediately  to 
Burleigh:  'My  very  good  Lord,  there  is  now  a  very 
great  gap  opened,  very  little  to  the  liking  at  the 
King  of  Spain. ' 

This  'very  great  gap*  on  the  American  side  of 


DRAKE  CUPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  les 
tlie  Atlantic  was  soon  to  be  matched  by  the  still 
greater  gap  Drake  was  to  make  on  the  European 
side  by  destroying  the  Spanish  Armada  and 
thus  securing  that  mightiest  df  ocean  highways 
through  which  the  hosts  of  emigration  afterwards 
poured  into  a  laud  endowed  with  the  goodly 
heritage  of  English  liberty  and  the  English  tongue. 

The  year  of  Drake's  return  (1586)  was  no  less 
troublous  than  its  immediate  predecessors.  The 
discovery  of  the  Babington  Plot  to  assassinate 
Elizabeth  and  to  place  Mary  on  the  throne,  sup- 
ported Sy  Scotland,  France,  and  Spain,  proved 
Mary's  v  omplicity,  produced  an  actual  threat  of 
war  from  France,  and  made  the  Pope  and  Philip 
gnash  their  teeth  with  rage.    The  Roman  Catholic 
aDied  powers  had  no  suflScient  navy,  and  Philip's 
credit  was  at  its  lowest  ebb  after  Drake's  devastat- 
ing raid.   The  English  were  exultant,  east  and 
west;  for  the  True  Report  cf  a  Worthie  Fight  per- 
formed in  the  voiagefrom  Turkie  by  Five  Shippes  of 
London  againet  11  gaUies  and  itoo  frigate  cf  ike  King 
of  Spain  at  Pantalarea,  wUkin  the  Straiis  [of  Gib- 
raltar! Anno  1586  was  going  the  rounds  and 
running  a  close  second  to  Drake's  West  India 
achievement.   The  ^orant  and  thoughtless,  both 


104         EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

then  aod  since,  mistook  this  fight,  and  aaother 
like  it  in  1090,  to  mean  that  English  merchantmen 
could  beat  off  Spanish  men-of-war.   Nothing  of 

the  kind:  the  English  Levanters  were  heavily 
armed  and  admirably  manned  by  well-trained 
fighting  crews;  and  what  these  actions  really 
proved,  if  proof  was  necessary,  was  that  galleys 
were  no  mutch  for  broadsides  from  the  proper 
kind  of  sailing  ships. 

Turkey  came  into  the  problcius  of  1586  in  more 
than  name,  for  there  was  a  vajst  diplomatic  scheme 
on  foot  to  unite  the  Turks  with  such  Portuguese 
as  would  support  Antonio,  the  pretender  to  the 
throne  of  Portugal,  and  the  rebellious  Dut^ 
against  Spain,  Catholic  France,  and  Mary  Stuart's 
Scotiand.  Leicester  was  in  the  Netherlands  with 
an  English  army,  fighting  indecisively,  losing  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  and  angering  Elizabeth  by  accepting 
the  governor-generalship  without  her  leave  and 
against  her  diplomacy,  which,  now  as  ever,  was 
opposed  to  any  definite  avowal  that  could  possibly 
be  helped. 

Meanwhile  the  Great  Armada  was  working  up 
its  strength,  and  Drake  was  commissioned  to 
weaken  it  as  much  as  possible.  But,  on  the  8th 
of  February,  1587,  before  he  could  sail,  Mary  was 


DRAKE  CUPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  195 
at  iMt  beheaded,  and  Klkabetli  was  once  mote 
entering  on  a  tricky  coune  of  tortuous  diplomacy 
too  long  by  half  to  follow  here.   As  the  great  crisis 
approached,  it  had  become  clearer  and  clearer  that 
it  was  a  case  of  kill  or  be  killed  between  Elizabeth 
and  Mary,  and  that  England  could  not  afford  to 
leave  Marian  enemies  in  the  rear  when  there  might 
be  a  vast  Catholic  alliance  in  the  front.    But,  as 
a  sovereign,  Elizabeth  disliked  the  execution  of 
any  crowned  head;  as  a  wily  woman  she  wanted  to 
make  the  most  of  both  sides;  and  as  a  diplomatist 
she  would  not  have  open  war  and  direct  operations 
going  down  to  the  root  of  the  evil  if  devious  ways 
would  do. 

So  the  peace  party  of  the  Council  prevailed 
again,  and  Drake's  orders  were  changed.  He  had 
been  gomg  as  a  lion.  The  peace  party  now  tried 
to  send  him  as  a  fox.  But  he  stretched  his  instruc- 
tions to  then*  utmost  limits  and  even  defied  the 
custom  of  the  service  by  holding  no  coiiacil  of 
war  when  decidmg  to  swoop  on  Cadiz. 

As  they  entered  the  harbor,  the  English  saw 
sixty  ships  engaged  in  preparations  for  the  Great 
Armada.  Many  had  no  sails — to  keep  the  crews 
from  deserting.  Others  were  waiting  for  their 
guns  to  come  from  Italy.    Ten  galleys  rowed  out 


106  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

to  protect  them.  The  weather  and  surroundings 
were  perfect  for  these  galleys.  But  as  they  came 
end-on  in  line-abreust  Drake  crossed  their  T  in 
line-ahead  with  the  shattering  broiuisides  of  four 
Queen's  ships  which  soon  sent  them  flying.  Each 
galley  was  the  upright  of  the  T,  each  English  sail- 
ing ship  the  corresponding  cross-piece.  Then 
Drake  attacked  the  shipping  and  wrecked  it  right 
and  left.  Next  morning  he  led  the  pinnaces  and 
boats  into  the  inner  harbor,  where  they  cut  out  the 
))ig  galleon  belonging  to  Santa  Cruz  himself,  ^he 
Spanish  commander-in-chief.  Then  the  galleys 
got  their  chance  again — an  absolutely  perfect 
chance,  because  Drake's  fleet  was  becalmed  at  the 
very  worst  possible  place  for  sailing  ships  and  the 
very  best  possible  place  for  the  well-oared  galleys. 
But  even  under  these  extraordinary  circumstances 
the  ships  smashed  the  galleys  up  with  broadside 
fire  and  sent  them  back  to  cover.  Then  the 
Spaniards  towed  some  fire-ships  out.  But  the 
English  rowed  for  them,  threw  grappling  irons  into 
them,  and  gave  them  a  turn  that  took  them  clear. 
Then,  for  the  last  time,  the  galleys  carae  on,  as 
bravely  but  as  uselessly  as  ever.  ^Vhen  Drake 
sailed  away  he  left  the  shipping  of  Cadiz  com- 
pletely out  o  action  for  mouths  to  come,  though 


DRAKE  CUPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  167 
fifteen  sail  escaped  dettruction  in  the  inner  har- 
bor.   His  own  losses  were  quite  insignificant. 

The  next  objective  was  Cape  St.  Vincent,  ao 
famous  through  centuries  of  naval  history  because 
it  is  the  great  strategic  salient  thrust  out  into  the 
Atlantic  from  the  southwest  comer  of  Europe,  and 
thus  commands  the  flunk  approaches  to  and  from 
the  Mediterranean,  to  and  '  '  ^e  coast  of  Africa, 
and,  in  those  days,  the  to  and  from  New 

Spain  by  way  of  the  Azores.  Here  Drake  had 
trouble  with  Borough,  his  second-in-command,  a 
friend  of  cautious  Burleigh  and  a  man  hide-bound 
in  the  wa'^are  of  the  past — a  sort  of  English  Don. 
Boroui^  objected  to  Drake's  taking  decisive  action 
without  the  vote  of  a  council  d  war.  Remember- 
ing the  terrors  of  Italian  teztbo«^,  he  had  con- 
tmued  to  regard  the  galleys  with  much  respect  in 
the  harbo"  of  Cadiz  even  after  Drake  had  broken 
them  wit.  ase.  FincUy,  still  clinging  to  the  old 
waj  t:  of  mere  raids  and  reprisals,  he  stood  aghast 
at  ihe  idea  of  seizing  Cape  St.  Vincent  and  making 
it  a  hase  of  operations.  Drake  promptly  put  him 
under  arrest. 

Sagres  Castle,  commanding  the  roadstead  of 
Cape  St.  Vincent,  was  extraordinarily  strong.  The 
cliflFs,  on  which  it  occupied  about  a  hundred  acres. 


168  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

rose  sheer  two  hundred  feet  all  round  except  at  a 
narrow  and  well  defended  neck  only  two  hundred 
yards  across.  Drake  led  the  stormers  himself. 
While  half  his  eight  hundred  men  kept  up  a  con- 
tinuous fire  against  every  Spaniard  on  the  wall  the 
other  half  rushed  piles  of  faggots  in  against  the  oak 
and  iron  gate.  Drake  was  foremost  in  this  work, 
carrying  faggots  himself  and  applying  the  first 
match.  For  two  hours  the  fight  went  on;  when 
suddenly  the  Spaniards  sounded  a  parley.  Their 
commanding  oflScer  had  been  killed  and  the  wood- 
work of  the  gate  had  taken  fire.  In  those  days  a 
garrison  that  would  not  surrender  was  put  to  the 
sword  when  captured;  so  these  Spaniards  may  wdl 
be  excused.  Drake  willingly  granted  thrai  the  hon- 
ors of  war;  and  so,  even  to  his  own  surprise,  the 
castle  fell  without  another  blow.  The  minor  forts 
near  by  at  once  surrendered  and  were  destroyed, 
while  the  guns  of  Sagres  were  thrown  over  the 
cliffs  and  picked  up  by  the  men  below.  The  whole 
neighboring  coast  was  then  swept  clear  of  the 
fishing  fleet  which  was  the  main  source  of  supply 
used  for  the  Great  Armada. 
'  The  next  objective  was  Lisbon,  the  headquarters 
of  the  Great  Armada,  one  of  the  finest  harbors  in 
the  world,  and  then  the  best  fortified  of  all.  Tak- 


DRAKE  CUPS  THE  WINGS  OF  SPAIN  169 

ing  it  was,  of  course,  out  of  the  question  without 
a  much  larger  fleet  accompanied  by  an  overwhehn- 
ing  army.  But  Drake  reconnoitred  to  good  effect, 
learnt  wrinkles  that  saved  him  from  disaster  two 
years  later,  and  retired  after  assuring  himself  that 
an  Armada  which  could  not  fight  him  then  could 
never  get  to  England  during  the  same  season. 

Ship  fevers  and  all  the  other  epidemics  that 
dogged  the  old  sailing  fleets  and  scourged  them 
like  the  plague  never  waited  long.  Drake  was 
soon  short-handed.  To  add  to  his  troubles,  Bor- 
ough sailed  away  for  home;  whereupon  Drake 
tried  him  and  his  officers  by  court-martial  and 
condemned  them  all  to  death.  This  penalty  was 
never  carried  out,  for  reasons  we  shall  soon  imder- 
stand.  Since  no  reinforcements  came  from  home. 
Cape  St.  Vincent  could  not  be  held  any  longer. 
There  was,  however,  one  more  stroke  to  make. 
The  great  East-India  Spanish  treasure  ship  was 
coming  home;  and  Drake  made  up  his  mind  to 
have  her. 

Off  the  Azores  he  met  her  coming  towards  him 
and  dipping  her  colors  again  and  again  to  ask  him 
who  he  was.  'But  we  would  put  out  no  flag  till 
we  were  within  shot  of  her,  when  we  hanged  out 
flags,  streamers,  and  pendants.   Which  done,  we 


170  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

hailed  her  with  cannon-shot;  and  having  shot  her 
through  divers  times,  she  shot  at  us.    Then  we 
began  to  ply  her  hotly,  our  fly  boat  [lightly  armed 
supply  vessel  of  comparatively  small  size]  and  one 
of  our  pinnaces  lying  athwart  her  hawse  [across 
her  bows]  at  whom  she  shot  and  threw  fire-works 
[incendiary  missiles]  but  did  them  uo  hurt,  in  that 
her  ordnance  lay  so  high  over  them.    Then  she, 
seeing  us  ready  to  lay  her  aboard  [range  up 
alongside],  all  of  our  ships  plying  her  so  hotly,  and 
resolutely  determined  to  make  short  work  of  her, 
they  yielded  to  us. '  The  Spaniards  fought  bravely, 
as  they  generally  did.  But  they  were  only  naval 
amateurs  compared  with  the  trained  professional 
aea-doga. 

The  voyage  was  now  *made'  in  the  old  sense  of 
that  term;  for  this  prize  was  'the  greatest  ship  in 
all  Portugal,  richly  laden,  to  our  Happy  Joy.' 
The  relative  values,  then  and  now,  are  impossible 
to  fix,  because  not  only  was  one  dollar  the  equiva- 
lent in  raost  ways  of  ten  dollars  now  but,  in  view 
of  the  smaller  material  scale  on  which  men's  lives 
were  lived,  these  ten  dollars  might  themselves  be 
itiultiplied  by  ten,  or  more,  without  producing  the 
same  effect  as  the  multiplied  sum  would  now  pro- 
duce on  international  affairs.    Suflice  it  to  say 


DRAKE  CLIPS  THE  WINGS  OP  SPAIN  171 
that  the  ship  was  worth  nearly  five  million  dollars 
of  actual  cash,  and  ten,  twenty,  thirty,  or  many 
more  millions  if  present  sums  of  money  are  to  be 
considered  relatively  to  the  national  incomes  of 
those  poorer  days. 

But  better  than  spices,  jewels,  and  gold  were 
the  secret  documents  which  revealed  the  dazzling 
profits  of  the  new  East-India  trade  by  sea.  From 
that  time  on  for  the  next  twelve  years  the  London 
merchants  and  their  friends  at  court  worked  stead- 
ily for  official  sanction  in  this  most  promising,  'irec- 
tion.    At  last,  on  the  31st  of  December,  1600,  the 
documents  captured  by  Drake  produced  their 
result,  and  the  East-India  Company,  by  far  the 
greatest  corporation  of  its  kind  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  was  granted  a  royal  charter  for  exclusive 
trade.  Drake  may  therefore  be  said  not  only  to 
have  set  the  course  for  the  United  States  but  to 
have  actually  discovered  the  route  leading  to  the 
Empire  of  India,  now  peopled  by  three  hundred 
million  subjects  of  the  British  Crown. 

So  ended  the  famous  campaign  of  1587,  popu- 
larly known  as  the  singeing  of  King  Philip's  beard. 
Beyond  a  doubt  it  was  the  most  consummate 
work  of  naval  strategy  which,  up  to  that  time,  all 
history  records. 


CHAPTER  IX 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA 

With  1588  the  final  crisis  came.  Phaip  — 
haughty,  gloomy,  and  ambitious  Philip,  unskilled 
in  anns,  but  persistent  in  his  plans — sat  in  his 
palace  at  Madrid  like  a  spider  forever  spinning 
webs  that  enemies  tore  down.  Drake  and  the 
English  had  thrown  the  whole  scheme  of  the 
Armada's  mobilization  completely  out  of  gear. 
Philip's  well-intentioned  orders  and  counter- 
orders  had  made  confusion  worse  confounded;  and 
though  the  Spanish  empire  held  half  the  riches  of 
the  world  it  felt  the  lack  of  ready  money  because 
English  sea  power  had  made  it  all  parts  and  no 
whole  for  several  months  together.  Then,  when 
mobilization  was  resumed,  Philip  found  himself 
distracted  by  expert  advice  from  Santa  Cruz,  his 
admiral,  and  from  Parma,  Alva's  successor  in  the 
Netherlands. 

The  general  idea  was  to  send  the  Invincible 

172 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ABMADit  178 
Aimada  up  the  English  Channel  as  far  as  the 
Netherlands,  where  Parma  would  be  ready  with  a 
magnificent  Spanish  army  waiting  aboard  troop- 
ships for  safe  conduct  into  England.   The  Spanish 
regulars  ould  then  hold  London  up  to  ransom  or 
burn  it  to  the  ground.    So  far,  so  good.  But 
Philip,  to  whom  amphibious  warfare  remained  an 
unsolved  mystery,  thou^ut  that  the  Armada  and 
the  Spanish  army  could  conquer  England  without 
actually  destroying  Lie  English  fleet.    He  could 
not  see  where  raids  must  end  and  conquest  must 
begin.    Most  Spaniards  agreed  with  him.  Parma 
and  Santa  Cruz  did  not.    Parma,  as  a  very  able 
general,  wanted  to  know  how  his  oversea  communi- 
cations could  be  made  quite  safe.   Santa  Cruz, 
as  a  very  able  adnural,  Imew  that  no  such  sea  road 
could  po8sft)ly  be  ssfe  while  the  ubiquitous  English 
navy  was  undefeated  and  at  large.   Some  tune  or 
other  a  naval  battle  must  be  won,  or  Parma's 
troops,  cut  off  from  their  base  of  supplies  and  sur- 
rounded like  an  island  by  an  angry  sea  of  enemies, 
nust  crely  perish.    Win  first  at  sea  and  then  on 
land,  said  the  expert  warriors,  Santa  Cruz  and 
Parma.   Get  into  hated  Engla  '  -vith  the  leant  pos- 
sible fighting,  risk,  or  loss,  saic   jc  mere  pohtician, 
Philip,  and  then  crush  Drake  if  he  annoys  you. 


174  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Early  and  late  persistent  Philip  slaved  away 
upon  this  'Enterprize  of  England.'  With  incred- 
ible toil  e  spun  his  web  anew.  The  ships  were 
collected  into  squadrons;  the  s(iuaurons  tl  last 
began  to  wear  the  semblance  of  a  fleet.  But  sem- 
blance only.  There  were  far  too  many  soldiers  and 
not  -learly  enoi  .^h  sailors.  Instead  of  sending  the 
fighting  fleet  to  try  to  clear  the  way  for  the  troop- 
ships coming  later  on,  Philip  mixed  army  and  navy 
together.  The  men-of-war  were  not  bad  of  their 
kind;  but  the  kind  was  bad.  They  were  floating 
castles,  high  out  of  the  water,  crammed  with 
soldiers,  some  other  landsmen,  and  stores,  and  with 
only  light  ordnance,  badly  distributed  so  as  to 
fire  at  rigging  and  superstructures  only,  not  at  the 
hulls  as  the  English  did.  Yet  this  was  not  the 
worst.  The  worst  was  that  the  fighting  fleet  was 
cumbered  with  troopships  which  might  have  been 
useful  in  boarding,  but  which  were  perfectly  use- 
less in  fighting  of  any  other  kind  —  and  the  English 
men  of -war  were  much  too  handy  to  be  laid  aboard 
by  the  lubberly  Spanish  troopships.  Santa  Cruz 
worked  himself  to  death.  In  one  of  his  last  dis- 
patches he  begged  for  more  and  better  guns.  All 
Philip  could  do  was  to  authorize  the  purchase  of 
whatever  guns  the  foreign  merchantmen  in  Lisbon 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  175 
harbor  could  be  induced  to  sell.   Sixty  second-rate 
pieces  were  obtained  in  this  way. 
Then,  worn  out  by  work  and  worry,  Santa  Cruz 

died,  and  Philip  forced  the  command  on  a  most 
rehictant  landlubber,  '  he  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia, 
a  very  great  grandee  of  Spain,  but  wholly  unfitted 
to  lead  a  fleet.    The  death  of  Santa  Cruz,  in  whom 
the  fleet  and  army  had  great  confidence,  nearly 
upset  the  whole  'Enterprize  of  England.'  The 
captains  were  as  unwilling  to  serre  under  bandy- 
legged, sea-sick  Sidonia  as  'k  was  unwilling  to 
command  them.   Volunteering  ceased.  Compul- 
sion failed  to  bring  in  the  skilled  ratings  urgently 
required.   The  sailors  were  now  not  only  fewer 
than  ever — sickn^  and  desertion  had  been  thin- 
ning their  ranks — but  many  of  these  few  were 
unfit  for  the  higher  kinds  of  seamanship,  while 
only  the  merest  handful  of  them  were  qualified 
as  seamen  gunners.   Philip,  however,  was  Jeter- 
mined;  and  so  the  doomed  Armada  struggled  on, 
fitting  its  imperfect  parts  together  mto  a  still  more 
imperfect  whole  until,  in  June,  it  was  as  ready  as  it 
ever  could  be  made. 

Meanwhile  the  English  had  their  troubles  too. 
These  were  also  political.  But  the  English  navy 
was  of  such  overwhelming  strength  that  it  could 


176  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

stand  them  with  impunity.  The  Queen,  after 
thirty  years  of  wonderful,  if  tortuous,  diplomacy, 
was  still  disinclined  to  drop  the  art  in  which  she 
was  supreme  for  that  in  which  she  counted  for 
so  much  less  and  by  which  she  was  obliged  to 
spend  so  very  much  more.  There  was  still  a 
little  peace  party  also  bent  on  diplomacy  instead 
of  war.  Negotiations  wee  opened  with  Parma 
at  Flushing  and  diplomatic  'feelers'  went  out 
towards  Philip,  who  sent  back  some  of  his  own. 
But  the  time  had  come  for  war.  The  stream  was 
now  too  strong  for  either  Elizabeth  or  Philip  to 
stem  or  even  divert  into  minor  channels. 

Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  as  Lord  High  Ad- 
miral of  England,  was  diarged  with  the  defence 
at  sea.  It  was  impossible  in  those  days  to  have 
any  great  force  without  some  great  nobleman  in 
charge  of  it,  because  the  people  still  looked  on  such 
men  as  their  natural  viceroys  and  commanders. 
But  just  as  Sir  John  Norreys,  the  most  expert  pro- 
fessional soldier  in  England,  was  made  Chief  of  the 
Staff  to  the  Earl  of  Leicester  ashore,  so  Drake  was 
made  Chief  of  the  Staff  to  Howard  afloat,  which 
meant  that  he  was  the  brain  of  the  fleet. 

A  directing  brain  was  sadly  needed  —  not  that 
brains  were  lacking,  but  that  some  one  man  of 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ABMAD  A  177 
original  and  creative  genius  was  required  to  bring 
the  modem  naval  system  into  triumphant  being. 
Like  all  political  heads,  Elizabeth  was  sensitive 
to  public  opinion;  and  public  opim'on  was  ignorant 
enough  to  clamor  for  protection  by  something  that 
a  man  could  see;  besides  which  there  were  all  those 
weaklings  who  have  been  described  as  the  old 
women  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages,  and  who  have 
always  been  the  nuisance  they  are  still.  Adding 
together  the  old  views  of  warfare,  which  nearly 
everybody  held,  and  the  human  weaknesses  we 
have  always  with  us,  there  was  a  most  dangerously 
strong  pubUc  opinion  in  favor  of  dividing  up  the 
navy  so  as  to  let  enough  different  places  actually 
see  that  they  had  some  visible  means  of  divided 
defence. 

The  30th  of  March,  1588,  is  the  day  of  days  to  be 
remembered  in  the  history  of  sea  power  because  it 
was  then  that  Drake,  writmg  from  Plymouth  to 
the  Queen-in-Coundl,  ^t  formulated  the  true 
doctrine  of  modern  naval  warfare,  eq>ecially  the 
cardinal  principle  that  the  best  of  all  defence  is  to 
attack  your  enemy's  main  fleet  as  it  issues  from  its 
ports.  This  marked  the  bu^h  of  the  system  per- 
fected by  Nelson  and  thence  passed  on,  with  many 
new  developments,  to  the  British  Grand  Fleet  in 


178  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

the  Great  War  of  to-day.  The  fint  step  was  by 
far  the  hardest,  for  Drake  had  to  ctmvert  the  Queen 
and  Howard  to  his  own  revolutionary  views.  He 
at  last  succeeded;  anu  on  the  7th  of  July  sailed  for 
Corunna,  where  the  Armada  had  rendezvoused 
after  being  dispersed  by  a  storm. 

Every  man  afloat  knew  that  the  hour  had  come. 
Yet  Elizabeth,  partly  on  the  score  of  expense, 
partly  not  to  let  Drake  snap  her  apron-strings 
completely,  had  kept  the  supply  of  food  and  even 
of  ammunition  very  short;  so  much  so  that  Drake 
knew  he  would  have  to  starve  or  else  replenish  from 
the  Spam'sh  fleet  itself.  As  he  drew  near  Corunna 
on  the  8th,  the  Spaniards  were  agam  reorganizing. 
Hundreds  of  perfectly  useless  landlubbers,  shipped 
at  Lisbon  to  complete  the  absurdly  undermanned 
ships,  were  being  dismissed  at  Corunna.  On  the 
9th,  when  Sidonia  assembled  a  council  of  war  to 
decide  whether  to  put  to  sea  or  not,  the  English 
van  was  almost  in  sight  of  the  coast.  But  then 
the  north  wind  flawed,  failed,  and  at  last  chopped 
round.  A  roaring  sou'wester  came  on;  and  the 
great  strategic  move  was  over. 

On  the  12th  the  fleet  was  back  in  Plymouth 
replenishing  as  hard  as  it  could.  Howard  behaved 
to  perfection.    Drake  worked  the  strategy  and 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  179 
tactics.  But  Howard  luul  to  set  the  tone,  afloat 
and  adiore,  to  all  who  came  within  hia  sphere  of 
influence;  and  right  well  he  set  it.   His  dispatches 

at  this  juncture  are  models  of  what  such  documents 
should  be;  and  their  undaunted  confidence  is  in 
marked  contrast  to  what  the  doomed  Spanish 
oflicers  were  writing  at  the  selfsame  time. 

The  southwest  wind  that  turned  Drake  back 
brought  the  Armada  out  and  gave  it  an  advantage 
which  would  have  been  fatal  to  England  had  the 
fleets  been  really  equal,  or  the  Spaniards  in  superior 
strength,  for  a  week  was  a  very  short  time  in  which 
to  replenish  the  stores  that  Elizabeth  had  pur- 
posely kept  so  low.   Drake  and  Howard,  so  the 
story  goes,  were  playing  a  game  of  bowls  on  Ply- 
mouth  Hoe  on  Friday  afternoon  the  19th  of  July 
when  Captain  Remmg  of  the  Golden  Hind  rushed 
up  to  say  the  Spanish  fleet  was  off  the  Lizard,  only 
sixty  miles  away!  All  eyes  turned  to  Drake. 
Divining  the  right  way  to  cahn  the  people,  he 
whispered  an  order  and  then  said  out  loud: 
•There's  time  to  end  our  game  and  beat  the  Span- 
iards too. '  The  shortness  of  food  and  ammunition 
that  had  compelled  him  to  come  back  instead  of 
waiting  to  blockade  now  threatened  to  get  him 
nicely  caught  in  the  very  trap  he  had  wished  to 


'iTirHfifini^iii  i<  ■  m 


180  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

catch  the  Great  Armada  in  himself;  for  the  Span- 
iards, coming  up  with  the  wind,  might  catch  him 
struggling  out  against  the  wind  and  crush  his  long 
emerging  column,  !)it  by  bit,  precisely  as  he  had 
intended  crushing  their  own  column  as  it  issued 
from  the  Tagus  or  Corunna. 

But  it  was  only  the  van  that  Fleming  had  sighted. 
Many  a  Spanish  straggler  was  still  hull-dovrn 
astern;  and  Sidonia  had  to  wait  for  all  to  close  and 
form  up  properly. 

Meanwhile  Drake  and  Howard  were  straining 
every  nerve  to  get  out  of  Plymouth.  It  was  not 
their  fault,  but  the  Queen*s-in-CounciI,  that 
Sidonia  had  unwittingly  stolen  this  march  on  them. 
It  was  their  glory  that  they  won  the  lost  advant- 
age back  again.  All  afternoon  and  evening,  all 
through  that  summer  night,  the  sea-dog  crews  were 
warping  out  of  harbor.  Torches,  flares,  and  cres- 
sets threw  their  fitful  light  on  toiling  lines  of  men 
hauling  on  ropes  that  moved  the  ships  apparently 
like  snails.  But  once  in  Plymouth  Sound  the 
whinnying  sh'javes  and  long  yo-hoes!  told  that  all 
the  sail  the  ships  rould  carry  was  being  made  for  a 
life-or-death  effort  to  win  the  weather  gage.  Thus 
beat  the  heart  of  naval  England  that  momentous 
night  in  Plymouth  Sound,  while  beacons  blazed 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  181 
from  height  to  height  ashore,  horsemen  spurred  off 
post-haste  with  orders  and  dispatcfaa,  and  eveiy 

able-bodied  landsnum  stood  to  arms. 

Next  morning  Drake  was  in  the  Channel,  near 
the  Eddystone,  with  fifty-four  sail,  when  he  sighted 
a  dim  blur  to  windward  through  the  thickening 
mist  and  drizzling  rain.  This  was  the  Great 
Armada.  Rain  came  on  and  killed  the  wind.  All 
sail  was  taken  in  aboard  the  English  fleet,  whicJi 
lay  under  bare  poles.  Invisible  to  the  Span 
who  still  announced  their  presence  with  jw 
of  canvas. 

In  actual  size  and  numbers  the  Spaniards  were 
superior  at  first.   But  as  the  week-long  running 
fight  progressed  the  English  evened  up  with  re- 
inforcements.  Spanish  vessels  looked  bigger  than 
their  tonnage,  being  high  built;  and  Spanish  official 
reports  likewise  exaggerated  the  size  because  their 
system  of    easurement  made  their  three  tons  equal 
to  an  English  four.    In  armament  and  seamen- 
gunners  the  English  were  perhaps  five  times  as 
strong  as  the  Armada— -and  seamen-gunners 
won  the  day.    The  English  seamen  greatly  out- 
numbered the  Spanish  seamen,  utterly  surpassed 
them  in  seamanship,  and  enjoyed  the  further  ad- 
vantage of  having  far  handier  vessels  to  work. 


182  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

The  Spanish  grand  total,  for  all  ranks  and  ratings, 
was  thirty  thousand  men;  the  English,  only  fifteen. 
But  the  Spaniards  were  six  thousand  short  on 
arrival;  and  their  actual  seamen,  many  of  whom 
were  only  half-trained,  then  numbered  a  bare 
seven  thousand.  The  seventeen  thousand  soldiers 
only  made  the  ships  so  many  death-traps;  for  they 
were  of  no  use  afloat  except  as  boarding  parties  — 
and  no  boarding  whatever  took  place.  The  Eng- 
lish fifteen  thousand,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
three-quarters  seamen  and  one-quarter  soldiers  who 
were  mostly  trained  as  marines,  and  this  total  was 
actually  present.  On  the  whole,  it  is  hardly  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  the  Armada  was  mostly 
composed  of  armed  transports  while  all  the  English 
vessels  that  counted  in  the  fighting  were  real  men- 
of-war. 

In  every  one  of  the  Armada's  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  vessels,  says  an  officer  of  the  Spanish 
flagship,  'our  people  kneeled  down  and  offered 
a  prayer,  beseeching  our  Lord  to  give  us  victory 
against  the  enemies  of  His  holy  faith.'  The 
crews  of  the  hundred  and  ninety-seven  English 
vessels  which,  at  one  time  or  another,  were  present 
in  some  capacity  on  the  scene  of  action  also  prayed 
for  victory  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  but  took  the 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  188 
proper  naval  means  to  win  it.   *  Trust  in  the  Lord 

—  and  keep  your  powder  dry,'  said  Oliver  Crom- 
well when  about  to  ford  a  river  in  the  presence  of 
the  enemy.    And  so,  in  other  words,  said  Drake. 

All  day  long,  on  that  fateful  20th  of  July,  the 
visible  Armada  with  its  swinging  canvas  was  lying- 
to  fifteen  miles  west  of  the  invisible,  bare-masted 
English  fleet.    Sidonia  held  a  council  of  war, 
which,  landsman-like,  believed  that  the  English 
were  divided,  one-half  watching  Parma,  the  other 
the  Armada.    The  trained  soldiers  and  sailors 
were  for  the  sound  plan  of  attacking  Plymouth 
first.    Some  admirals  even  proposed  the  only  per- 
fect plan  of  crushing  Drake  in  detail  as  he  issued 
from  the  Sound.   All  were  in  blissful  ignorance  of 
the  astounding  feat  of  English  seamanship  which 
had  abeady  robbed  them  of  the  only  chance  they 
ever  had.   But  Philip,  also  landsman-like,  had 
done  his  best  t"  thwart  his  own  Armada;  for 
Sidonia  produced  the  royal  orders  forbidding  any 
attack  on  England  till  he  and  Parma  had  joined 
hands.    Drake,  however,  might  be  crushed  piece- 
meal in  the  oflSng  when  still  with  his  aftermost 
ships  in  the  Sound.    So,  with  this  true  idea,  un- 
workable because  based  on  false  information,  the 
generals  and  admirals  dispersed  to  their  vessels  and 


184  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

waited.  But  then,  just  as  night  was  closing  in, 
the  weather  lifted  enough  to  reveal  Drake's  aston- 
ishing position.  Immediately  pinnaces  went  scur- 
rying to  Sidonia  for  orders.  But  he  had  none  to 
give.  At  one  in  the  mornmg  he  learnt  some  more 
dumbfounding  news:  that  the  English  had  nearly 
caught  him  at  Corunna,  that  Drake  and  Howard 
had  joined  forces,  and  that  both  were  now  before 
him. 

Nor  was  even  this  the  worst.   For  while  the  dis- 
tracted Sidonia  was  getting  his  fleet  into  the  'eagle 
formation,'  so  suitable  for  galleys  whose  only 
fighting  men  were  soldiers,  the  English  fleet  was 
stealing  the  weather  gage,  his  one  remaining 
natural  advantage.   An  English  squadron  of 
eight  sail  manoeuvred  coast-wise  on  the  Armada's 
inner  flank,  while,  unperceived  by  the  Spanish 
lookout,  Drake  stole  away  to  sea,  beat  round  its 
outer  flank,  and  then,  making  the  most  of  a  west- 
erly slant  in  the  shifting  breeze,  edged  in  to  star- 
board.   The  Spaniards  saw  nothing  till  it  was  too 
late,  Drake  having  given  them  a  berth  just  wide 
enough  to  keep  them  quiet.    But  when  the  sun 
rose,  there,  only  a  few  miles  off  to  windward,  was 
thd  whole  main  body  of  the  English  fleet,  coming 
on  in  faultless  line-ahead,  heeling  nicely  over  on  the 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  185 

port  tack  before  the  freshening  breeze,  and,  far 
from  waiting  for  the  Great  Armada,  boldly  bearing 
down  to  the  attack.  With  this  consummate  move 
the  victoiy  was  won. 

The  rest  was  slaughter,  borne  by  the  Spaniards 
with  a  resolution  that  nothing  could  surpass. 
With  dauntless  tenacity  they  kept  their  'eagle 
formation,'  so  useful  at  Lepanto,  through  seven 
dire  days  of  most  one-sided  fighting.  Whenever 
occasion  seemed  to  offer,  the  Spaniards  did  their 
best  to  close,  to  grapple,  and  to  board,  as  had  their 
heroes  at  Lepanto.  But  the  English  merely 
laughed,  ran  in,  just  out  of  reach,  poured  in  a 
shattering  broadside  between  wind  and  water, 
stood  off  to  reload,  fired  again,  with  equal  ad- 
vantage, at  longer  range,  caught  the  slow  galleons 
end-on,  raked  them  from  stem  to  stem,  passed  to 
and  fro  in  one,  long,  deadly  line-ahead,  concentrat- 
ing at  will  on  any  given  target;  and  did  all  this 
with  well-nigh  perfect  safety  to  themselves.  In 
quite  a  different  way  close-to,  but  to  the  same  effect 
at  either  distance,  long  or  short,  the  English  'had 
the  range  of  them,'  as  sailors  say  to-day.  Close- 
to,  the  little  Spanish  guns  fired  much  too  high  to 
hull  the  English  vessels,  lying  low  and  trim  upon 
the  water,  with  whose  changing  humors  their  lines 


186  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

fell  in  so  much  more  happily  than  those  of  any 
lumbering  Spaniards  could.  Far-off,  the  little 
Spanish  guns  did  correspondingly  small  damage, 
even  when  they  managed  to  hit;  while  the  heavy 
metal  of  the  English,  handled  by  real  seamen- 
gumiers,  inflicted  crushing  damage  in  return. 

But  even  more  important  than  the  Englishmen's 
superiority  in  -ig,  hull,  armament,  and  expert 
seamanship  was  their  tactical  use  of  the  thor- 
oughly modern  line-ahead.   Any  one  who  will  take 
the  letter  T  as  an  illustration  can  easily  understand 
the  advantage  of  'crossing  his  T.*   The  upright 
represents  aa  enemy  caught  when  in  column-ahead, 
as  he  would  be,  for  instance,  when  issuing  from  a 
narrow-necked  port.    In  this  formation  he  can 
only  use  bow  fire,  and  that  only  in  succession,  on  a 
very  narrow  front.   But  the  fleet  represented  by 
the  crosspiece,  moving  across  the  point  of  the  up- 
right, is  in  the  deadly  line-ahead,  with  all  its  near 
broadsides  turned  in  one  long  converging  line  of 
fire  against  the  helplessly  narrow-fronted  enemy. 
If  the  enemy,  sticking  to  mediaeval  tactics,  had 
room  to  broaden  his  front  by  forming  column- 
abreast,  as  galleys  always  did,  that  is,  with  several 
uprights  side  by  side,  he  would  still  be  at  the  same 
sort  of  disadvantage;  for  this  would  only  mean  a 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPAraSH  ARMADA  187 

.oeries  of  T's  with  each  nearest  broadside  crossing 

each  opposing  upright  as  before. 

The  herded  soldiers  and  non-combatants  aboard 
the  Great  Armada  stood  by  their  useless  duties  to 
the  last.  Thousands  fell  killed  or  wounded. 
Several  times  the  Spanish  scuppers  actually  ran  a 
horrid  red,  as  if  the  very  ships  were  bleeding.  The 
priests  behaved  as  bravely  as  the  Jesuits  of  New 
France  —  and  who  could  be  braver  than  those  un- 
daunted missionaries  were.'  Soldiers  and  sailors 
were  alike.  'What  shall  we  do  now.?'  asked 
Sidonia  after  the  slaughter  had  gone  on  for  a  week. 
'Order  up  more  powder,'  said  Oquendo,  as  daunt- 
less as  before.  Even  then  the  eagle  formation  was 
still  kept  up.  The  van  ships  were  the  head.  The 
biggest  galleons  formed  the  body.  Lighter  vessels 
formed  the  wings.   A  reserve  formed  the  tail. 

As  the  unflinching  Armada  stood  slowly  up  the 
Channel  a  sail  or  two  would  drop  out  by  the  way, 
dead-beat.  One  night  several  strange  sail  passed 
suddenly  by  Drake.  What  should  he  do?  To  go 
about  and  follow  them  with  all  astern  of  him  doing 
the  same  in  succession  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  as 
his  aftermost  vessels  were  merchantmen,  wholly 
untrained  to  the  exact  combined  manoeuvres  re- 
quired in  a  fighting  fleet,  though  first-rate  individ- 


188  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

ually.  There  was  then  no  night  signal  equi  /alent 
to  the  modern  'Disregard  the  flagship's  move- 
ments.' So  Drake  dowsed  his  stern  light,  went 
about,  overhauled  the  strangers,  and  found  they 
were  bewildered  German  merchantmen.  He  had 
just  gone  about  once  more  to  resume  his  own  sta- 
tion when  suddenly  a  Spanish  flagship  loomed  up 
beside  his  own  flagship  the  Revenge.  Drake  im- 
mediately had  his  pinnace  lowered  away  to  demand 
instant  surrender.  But  the  Spanish  admiral  was 
Don  Pedro  de  Valdes,  a  very  gallant  commander 
and  a  very  proud  grandee,  who  demanded  terms; 
and,  though  his  flagship  (which  had  been  in  colli- 
sion with  a  nm-amuck)  seemed  likely  to  sink,  he 
was  quite  ready  to  go  down  fighting.  Yet  the 
moment  he  heard  that  his  summoner  was  Drake  he 
surrendered  at  discretion,  feeling  it  a  personal 
honor,  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  age,  to  yield 
his  sword  to  the  greatest  seaman  in  the  world. 
With  forty  oflScers  he  saluted  Drake,  compliment- 
ing him  on  *  valour  and  felicity  so  great  that  Mars 
and  Neptune  seemed  to  attend  him,  as  also  on  his 
generosity  towards  the  fallen  foe,  a  quality  often 
experienced  by  the  Spaniards;  whereupon,'  adds 
this  eyewitness,  'Sir  Francis  Drake,  requiting  his 
Spanish  compliments  with  honest  English  courte- 


DRAKE  AND  THE  S^'^ANISH  ARMADA  189 
sies,  placed  him  at  his  own  table  and  lodged  him 
in  his  own  cabin.  *  Drake's  enemies  at  home  ac- 
cused him  of  having  deserted  his  fleet  to  capture 
a  treasure  ship  —  for  there  was  a  good  deal  of  gold 
with  Valdes.  But  the  charge  was  quite  unfounded. 

A  very  diflFerent  charge  against  Howard  had 
more  foundation.  The  Armada  had  anchored  at 
Calais  to  get  its  breath  before  running  the  gauntlet 
for  the  last  time  and  joining  Parma  in  the  Nether- 
lands. But  in  the  dead  of  night,  when  the  flood 
was  making  and  a  strong  west  wind  was  blowing  in 
the  same  direction  as  the  swirling  tidal  stream,  nine 
English  fire-ships  suddenly  burst  into  flame  and 
made  for  the  Spanish  anchorage.  There  were  no 
boats  ready  to  grapple  the  fire-ships  and  tow  them 
clear.  There  was  no  time  to  weigh;  for  every 
vessel  had  two  anchors  down.  Sidonia,  enraged 
that  the  boats  were  not  out  on  patrol,  gave  the 
order  for  the  whole  fleet  to  cut  their  cables  and 
make  off  for  their  lives.  As  the  great  lumbering 
hulls,  which  had  of  course  been  riding  head  to  wind, 
swung  round  in  the  dark  and  confusion,  several 
crashing  collisions  occurred.  Next  morning  the 
Armada  was  strung  along  the  Flemish  coast  in  dis- 
orderly flight.  Seeing  the  impossibility  of  bring- 
ing the  leewardly  vessels  back  against  the  wind  in 


190  EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

time  to  form  up,  Sidonia  ran  down  with  the  wind- 
ward ones  and  formed  farther  oflF.  Howard  then 
led  in  pursuit.  But  seeing  the  capitana  of  the 
renowned  Italian  galleasses  in  distress  near  Calais, 
he  becai  e  a  mediaeval  knight  again,  left  his  fleet, 
and  took  the  galleasse.  For  the  moment  that  one 
feather  in  his  cap  seemed  better  worth  having  than 
a  general  victory. 

Drake  forged  ahead  and  led  the  pursuit  in  turn. 
The  Spaniards  fought  with  desperate  courage,  still 
8u£Fering  ghastly  losses.  But,  do  what  they  oould 
to  bear  up  against  tJie  English  a:  e  wind,  thqr 
were  forced  to  leeward  ci  Dunkii. ,  so  out  of 
touch  with  Parma.  This  was  the  result  of  the 
Battle  of  Gravelines,  fought  on  Monday  the  29th 
of  July,  1588,  just  ten  days  after  Captain  Fleming 
had  rushed  on  to  the  bowling  green  of  Plymouth 
Hoe  where  Drake  and  Howard,  their  shore  work 
done,  were  playing  a  game  before  embarking.  In 
those  ten  days  the  gallant  Armada  had  lost  all 
chance  of  winning  the  overlordship  of  the  sea  and 
shaking  the  sea-dog  grip  off  both  Americas.  A 
rising  gale  now  forced  it  to  choose  between  getting 
pounded  to  death  on  the  shoals  of  Dunkirk  or 
running  north,  through  that  North  Sea  in  which 
the  British  Grand  Fleet  of  the  twentieth  century 


DRAKE  AND  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA  191 

fought  against  the  fourth  attempt  in  modern  times 

to  win  a  world-dominion. 

North,  and  still  north,  round  by  the  surf-lashed 
Orkneys,  then  down  the  wild  west  coasts  of  the 
Hebrides  and  Ireland,  went  the  forlorn  Armada, 
losing  ships  and  men  at  every  stage,  until  at  last 
the  remnant  straggled  into  Spanish  porta  like  the 
mere  wreckage  of  a  storm. 


CHAPIER  X 

*TUE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-TUREe' 

Thb  next  year,  1589,  is  famous  for  the  unsuc- 
cessful Lisbon  Expedition.  Drake  had  the  usual 
troubles  with  Elizabeth,  yrho  wanted  him  to 
go  about  picking  leaves  and  breaking  branches 
before  laying  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  tree. 
Though  there  were  in  the  Narrow  Seas  defensive 
squadrons  strong  enough  to  ward  off  any  possible 
blow,  yet  the  nervous  landsmen  wanted  Corunna 
and  other  ports  attacked  and  their  shipping  dt 
stroyed,  for  fear  England  should  be  invaded  before 
Drake  could  strike  his  blow  at  Lisbon.  Then 
there  were  troubles  about  stores  and  ammunition. 
The  English  fleet  had  been  reduced  to  the  last 
pound  of  powder  twice  during  the  ten-days'  battle 
with  the  Armada.  Yet  Elizabeth  was  again 
alarmed  at  tb«>  expense  of  munitions.  She  never 
quite  rose  to  the  idea  of  one  supreme  and  finishing 
blow,  no  matter  what  the  cost  might  be. 

192 


THE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-THREE'  199 
This  was  a  joint  expedition,  the  fint  in  which  « 

really  modem  English  fleet  and  army  had  ever 
taken  part,  with  Sir  John  Norreys  in  command  of 
the  army.  There  was  no  trouble  about  recruits, 
for  all  men  of  spirit  flocked  in  to  follow  Drake  and 
Norreys.  The  fleet  was  perfectly  organized  into 
appropriate  squadrons  and  flotillas,  such  as  then 
corresponded  with  the  battleships,  cruisers,  and 
mosquito  craft  of  modern  navies.  The  army  was 
organized  into  battalions  and  brigades,  with  a 
regular  staff  and  all  the  proper  branches  of  the 
service. 

The  fleet  made  for  Corunna,  where  Norreys  won 
a  brilliant  victory.  A  curious  little  incident  of 
exact  punctilio  is  worth  recording.  After  the 
battle,  and  when  the  fleet  was  waiting  for  a  fair 
wind  to  get  out  of  the  harbor,  the  ships  were  much 
annoyed  hy  a  battery  on  the  heights  Norreys 
undertook  to  storm  the  works  and  sent  in  the  usual 
summons  by  a  parlementaire  accompanied  by  a 
drummer.  An  angry  Spaniard  fired  from  the  walls 
and  the  drummer  fell  dead.  The  English  had 
hostages  on  whom  to  take  reprisals.  But  the 
Spaniards  were  too  quick  for  them.  Within  ten 
minutes  the  guilty  man  was  tried  inside  the  fort 
by  drum-head  court-martial,  condemned  to  death, 

13 


4 


194         EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

and  swung  out  neatly  from  the  walls,  while  a  pdite 

Spani'h  officer  came  over  to  assure  the  English 
troops  that  such  a  breach  of  discipline  should  not 

occur  again. 

Lisbon  was  a  failure.  The  troops  landed  and 
marched  over  the  ground  north  of  Lisbon  where 
Wellington  in  a  later  day  made  works  whose  fame 
has  caused  their  memory  to  become  an  allusion  in 
English  literature  for  any  impregnable  base  —  the 
Lines  of  Torres  Vedras.  The  fleet  and  the  army 
now  lost  touch  with  each  other;  and  that  was  the 
ruin  of  them  all.  Norreys  was  persuaded  by  Don 
Antonio,  pretender  to  the  throne  of  Portugal  which 
Philip  had  seized,  to  march  farther  inland,  where 
Portuguese  patriots  were  said  to  be  ready  to  rise 
en  masse.  This  Antonio  was  a  great  talker  and  a 
first-rate  fighter  with  his  tongue.  But  his  Por- 
tuguese followers,  also  great  talkers,  wanted  to  see 
a  victory  won  by  arms  before  they  rose. 

Before  leaving  Lisbon  Drake  had  one  stroke  d 
good  luck.  A  Spanish  convoy  brought  in  a  Han- 
seat  !c  Dutch  and  German  fleet  of  merchantmen 
loaded  down  with  contraband  of  war  destined  for 
•  Phil'p's  new  Armada.  Drake  swooped  on  it 
immediately  and  took  sixty  well-found  ships. 
Then  he  went  west  to  the  Azores,  looking  for  what 


•THE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-THREE*  105 
he  called  'some  comfwUble  little  dew  of  Heavra,* 
that  is,  of  course,  more  pri.  ci  of  a  richer  kind. 
But  sickness  broke  out.  The  men  died  off  like 
flies.  Storms  completed  the  discomfiture.  And 
the  expedition  got  home  with  a  great  deal  less  than 
half  its  strength  in  men  and  not  enough  in  value 
to  pay  for  its  expenses.  It  was  held  to  have  failed; 
and  Drake  lost  favor. 


With  the  sun  of  Drake's  glory  in  eclipse  at  court 
and  with  Spain  and  England  resting  from  warfare 
on  the  grander  scale,  there  were  no  more  big  battles 
the  following  year.  But  the  year  after  that,  1591, 
is  rendered  famous  in  the  annab  of  the  sea  by  Sir 
Richard  Grenville's  fight  in  Drake's  old  flagship, 
the  Revenge.  This  is  the  immortal  battle  of  'the 
one  and  the  fifty-three*  from  whidi  Raleigh's 
prose  and  Tennyson's  verse  have  made  a  glory  of 
the  pen  fit  to  match  the  glory  of  the  sword. 

Grenville  had  sat,  with  Drake  and  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  on  the  Parliamentary  committee  which 
recommended  the  royal  charter  granted  to  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  for  the  founding  of  the  first  English 
colony  in  what  is  now  the  United  States.  Grenville's 
grandfather.  Marshal  of  Calais  to  Henry  VIII, 
had  the  faculty  of  rhyme,  and,  in  a  set  of  verses 


I 


m 

C 


196         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


very  popular  in  their  own  day,  showed  what  the 
Grenville  family  ambitions  were. 

Who  seeks  the  way  to  win  renown, 
Or  flies  with  wings  to  high  desire, 
Who  seeks  to  wear  the  laurel  crov  a. 
Or  hath  the  mind  that  would  aspi  'e  -  - 
Let  him  his  native  soil  eschew, 
Let  him  go  range  and  seek  a  new. 

Grenville  himself  was  a  wild  and  roving  blade, 
no  great  commander,  but  an  adventurer  of  the 
most  daring  kind  by  land  or  sea.  He  rather  en- 
joyed the  consternation  he  caused  by  aping  the 
airs  of  a  pirate  king.  He  had  a  rough  way  with 
him  at  all  times;  and  Ralph  Lane  was  much  set 
against  his  being  the  commander  of  the  'Virginia 
Voyage '  of  which  Lane  himself  was  the  governor  on 
land.  But  in  action  he  always  was,  beyond  a 
doubt,  the  very  beau  idSal  of  a  'first-dass  fighting 
man.'  A  striking  instance  of  his  methods  was 
afforded  on  his  return  from  Virginia,  when  he 
found  an  armed  Spanish  treasure  ship  ahead  of  him 
at  sea.  He  had  no  boat  to  board  her  with.  But  he 
knocked  some  sort  of  one  together  out  of  the  ship's 
chests  and  sprang  up  the  Spaniard's  side  with  his 
boarding  party  just  as  this  makeshift  boat  was 
sinking  under  them. 


'THE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-THREE'  197 

The  last  fight  of  the  Revenge  is  almost  incredible 
from  the  odds  engaged  —  fifty -three  vessels  to  one. 
But  it  is  true;  and  neither  Raleigh's  globing  prose 
nor  Tennyson's  glowing  verse  exaggerates  it. 
Lord  Thomas  Howard,  'almost  famished  for  want 
of  prey,*  had  been  cruising  in  search  of  treasure 
ships  when  Captain  Middleton,  one  of  the  gentle- 
men-adventurers who  followed  the  gallant  Earl 
of  Cumberland,  came  in  to  warn  him  that  Don 
Alonzo  de  Bazan  was  following  with  fifty-three 
sail.  The  English  crew?  were  partly  ashore  at 
the  Azores;  and  Howard  had  barely  time  to  bring 
them  off,  cut  his  cables,  and  work  to  windward 
of  the  overwhelming  Spaniards. 

Grenville's  men  were  last.  The  Revenge  had  only 
'her  hundred  fighters  on  deck  and  her  ninety  sick 
below'  when  the  Spanish  fleet  closed  round  him. 
Yet,  just  as  he  had  sworn  to  cut  down  the  first  man 
who  touched  a  sail  when  the  master  thought  there 
was  still  a  chance  to  slip  through,  so  now  he  refused 
to  siirrender  on  any  terms  at  all.  Then,  running 
down  dose-hauled  on  the  starboard  tack,  decks 
cleared  for  action  and  crew  at  battle  quarters,  he 
steered  right  between  two  diviaons  of  the  Spanish 
fleet  till  'the  mountain-like  San  Felipe^  of  fifteen 
hundred  tons,'  ranging  up  on  his  weather  side. 


198  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

blanketed  his  canvas  and  left  him  almost  becalmed. 
Immediately  the  vessels  which  lie  Revenge  had 
weathered  hauled  their  wind  and  came  up  on  her 
from  to-leeward.  Then,  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  1st  of  September,  1591,  ^  at  im- 
mortal fight  began. 

The  first  broadside  from  the  Erenge  took  the 
San  Felipe  on  the  water-line  and  forced  her  to 
give  way  and  stop  her  leaks.  Then  two  Spaniards 
ranged  up  in  her  place,  while  two  more  kept  sta- 
tion on  the  other  side.  And  so  the  desperate  fight 
went  on  all  through  that  altemoon  and  evening  and 
far  on  into  the  night.  Meanwhile  Howard,  still 
keeping  the  weather  gage,  attacked  the  Spaniards 
from  the  rear  and  thought  of  trying  to  cut  through 
them.  But  his  sailing  master  swore  it  would  be 
the  end  of  all  Her  Majesty's  ships  engaged,  as  it 
probably  would;  so  he  bore  away,  wisely  or  not  as 
critics  may  judge  for  themselves.  One  vessel,  the 
little  George  Noble  of  London,  a  victualler,  stood  by 
the  Revenge,  offering  help  before  the  fight  began. 
But  Grenville,  thanking  her  gallant  skipper,  or- 
dered him  to  save  his  vessel  by  following  Howard. 
^  With  never  less  than  one  enemy  on  each  side  of 
her,  the  Revenge  fought  furiously  on.  Boarders 
awayl  shouted  the  Spanish  colonels  as  the  ves- 


•THE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-THREE'  199 

sels  closed.  Repel  boarders!  shouted  Grenville  in 
reply.  And  they  did  repel  them,  time  and  again, 
till  the  English  pikes  dripped  red  with  Spanish 
blood.  A  few  Spaniards  gained  the  deck,  only  to 
be  shot,  stabbed,  or  slashed  to  death.  Towards 
midnight  Grenville  was  hit  in  the  body  by  a 
musket-shot  fired  from  the  tops — the  same  sort  of 
shot  that  killed  Nelson.  The  surgeon  was  killed 
while  dressing  the  wound,  and  Grenville  was  hit  in 
the  head.  But  still  the  fight  went  on.  The 
Revenge  had  already  sunk  two  Spaniards,  a  third 
sank  afterwards,  and  a  fourth  was  beached  to  sav*» 
her.  But  Grenville  would  not  hear  of  surrender. 
When  day  broke  not  ten  unwounded  Englishmen 
remained.  The  pikes  were  broken.  The  powder 
was  spent.  The  whole  deck  was  a  wild  entangle- 
ment of  masts,  spars,  sails,  and  rigging.  The 
undaunted  suivivors  stood  dumb  as  their  silent 
cannon.  But  every  Spanish  hull  in  the  whole  en  • 
circling  ring  of  death  bore  marks  of  the  Revenge's 
rage.  Four  hundred  Spaniards,  by  their  own  ad- 
mission, had  been  killed,  and  quite  six  hundred 
wounded.  One  himdred  Englishmen  had  thus 
accounted  for  a  thousand  Spaniards  besides  aU 
those  that  sank! 
Grenville  now  gave  his  last  order:  'Sink  me  the 


SOO         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 
ship,  Master-Gunner!'   But  the  sailing  master 
and  flag-captain,  both  wounded,  protesting  that 
all  lives  should  be  saved  to  avenge  the  dead, 
manned  the  only  remaming  boat  and  made  good 
terms  with  the  Spanish  admiral.   Then  Grenville 
was  taken  very  carefully  aboard  Don  Bazan's 
flag  hip,  where  he  was  received  with  every  possible 
mark  of  admiration  and  respect.    Don  Bazan  gave 
him  his  own  cabin.    The  staff  surgeon  dressed  his 
many  wounds.   The  Spanish  captains  and  military 
oflScers  stood  hat  in  hand,  'wondering  at  his  cour- 
age and  stout  heart,  for  that  he  showed  not  any 
signs  of  faintness  nor  changing  of  his  colour.' 
Grenville  spoke  Spanish  very  well  and  handsomely 
acknowledged  the  compliments  they  paid  him. 
Then,  gathering  his  ebbing  strength  for  one  last 
effort,  he  addressed  them  in  words  they  have  re- 
ligiously recorded: '  "Here  die  I,  Richard  Grenville, 
with  a  joyful  and  quiet  mind;  for  that  I  have 
ended  my  life  as  a  true  soldier  ought  to  do,  that 
hath  fought  for  his  country,  queen,  religion,  and 
honour.   Wherefore  my  soul  most  joyfully  de- 
parteth  out  of  this  body."  .  .  .  And  when  he  had 
said  these  and  other  suchlike  words  he  gave  up 
the  ghost  with  a  great  and  stout  courage.' 

Grenville's  latest  wish  was  that  the  Revenge  and 


•THE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-THREE*  201 

he  should  die  together;  and,  though  he  knew  it  not, 
he  had  this  wish  fulfilled.  For,  two  weeks  later, 
when  Don  Bazan  had  collected  nearly  a  hundred 
more  sail  around  him  for  the  last  stage  home  from 
the  West  Indies,  a  cyclone  such  as  no  living  man 
remembered  burst  full  on  the  crowded  fleet.  Not 
even  the  Great  Armada  lost  more  vessels  than  Don 
Bazan  did  in  that  wredc-engulfing  week.  No  less 
than  seventy  went  down.  And  with  them  sank 
the  shattered  Revenge,  beside  her  own  heroic  dead. 

Drake  might  be  out  of  favor  at  court.  The 

Queen  might  grumble  at  the  sad  extravagance  of 
fleets.  Diplomats  might  talk  of  untying  Gordian 
knots  that  the  sword  was  made  to  cut.  Courtiers 
and  politicians  might  wonder  with  which  side  to 
curry  favor  when  it  was  an  issue  between  two  par- 
ties— peace  or  war.  The  great  mass  of  ordinary 
landsmen  might  wonder  why  the  *  sea-affair*  was 
a  thing  they  could  not  understand.  But  all  this 
was  only  the  mint  and  cummin  of  imperial  things 
compared  with  the  exalting  deeds  that  Drake  had 
done.  For,  once  the  English  sea-dogs  had  shown 
the  way  to  all  America  by  breaking  down  the  bar- 
riers of  Spain,  England  had  ceased  to  be  merely  an 
island  in  a  northern  sea  and  had  become  the  mother 


202  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

country  of  such  an  empire  and  republic  as 
neither  record  nor  tradition  can  show  the  like  of 

elsewhere. 

And  England  felt  the  triumph.  She  thrilled 
with  pregnant  joy.  Poet  and  proseman  both 
gave  voice  to  her  delight.  Hear  this  new  note  of 
exultation  bom  of  England's  victory  on  the 

sea: 

As  God  hath  combined  the  sea  and  land  into  one 
globe,  so  their  mutual  assistance  is  necessary  to  secular 

happiness  and  glory.  The  sea  covcreth  one-half  of 
this  patrimony  of  man.  Thus  should  man  at  once 
lose  the  half  of  his  inheritance  if  the  art  of  navigation 
did  not  enable  him  to  manage  this  untamed  beast; 
and  with  the  bridle  of  the  winds  and  the  saddle  of  his 
shipping  make  him  serviceable.  Now  for  the  services 
of  the  sea,  they  are  innumerable:  it  is  the  great  pur- 
veyor of  the  world's  commodities;  the  conveyor  of  the 
excess  of  rivers;  uniter,  by  traffique,  of  all  nations;  it 
presents  the  eye  with  divers  colors  and  motions,  and 
is,  as  it  were  with  rich  brooches,  adorned  with  many 
islands.  It  is  an  op>en  field  for  merchandise  in  peace; 
a  pitched  field  for  the  most  dreadful  fights  in  war; 
yields  diversity  of  fish  and  fowl  for  diet,  material 
for  wealth;  medicine  for  sickness;  pearls  and  jewels  for 
adornment;  the  wonders  of  the  Lord  in  the  deep  for 
aU  instruction;  multiplicity  of  nature  for  contemplation; 
to  the  thirsty  Earth  fertile  moisture;  to  distant  friends 
pleasant  meeting;  to  weary  persons  deUghtful  refresh- 


•THE  ONE  AND  THE  FIFTY-THREE'  208 


ing;  to  studious  minds  a  map  of  knowledge,  a  school 
of  prayer,  meditation,  devotion,  and  sobriety;  refuge 
to  the  distressed,  portage  to  the  merchant,  customs  to 
the  prince,  passage  to  the  traveller;  springs,  lakes,  and 
rivers  to  the  Earth.  It  hath  tempests  and  calms  to 
chastise  sinners  ard  exercise  the  faith  of  seamen; 
manifold  affections  to  stupefy  the  subtlest  philosopher, 
maintaineth  (as  in  Our  Island)  a  wall  of  defence  and 
watery  garrison  to  guard  the  state.  It  entertains  the 
Sun  with  vapors,  the  Stars  with  a  natural  looking- 
glass,  the  sky  with  clouds,  the  air  with  temperateness, 
the  soil  with  suppleness,  the  rivers  with  tides,  the  hills 
with  moisture,  the  valleys  with  fertility.  But  why 
should  I  longer  detain  you?  The  Sea  yields  action  to 
the  body,  meditation  to  the  mind,  and  the  World  to 
the  World,  by  this  art  of  arts  —  Navigation. 

Well  might  this  pious  Englishman,  the  Reverend 
Samuel  Purchas,  exclaim  with  David:  Thy  ways 
are  in  the  Sea,  and  Thy  paths  in  the  great  waters, 
and  Thy  footsteps  are  not  known. 

The  poets  sang  of  Drake  and  England,  too. 
Could  his  'Encompassment  of  All  the  Worlde' 
be  more  happily  admired  than  in  these  four  short 
lines: 

The  Stars  of  Heaven  would  thee  proclaim 

If  men  here  silent  were. 
The  Sun  himself  could  not  forget 

His  fellow  traveller. 


S04  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


What  wonder  that  after  Nombre  de  Dios  and 
the  Pacific,  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main, 
Cadiz  and  the  Annada,  what  wonder,  after  this, 
that  Shakespeare,  English  to  the  core,  rings  out:  — 

This  royal  throne  of  kings,  this  sceptred  isle. 

This  earth  of  majesty,  this  seat  of  Mars, 

This  other  Eden,  demi-paradiae; 

This  fortress  built  by  nature  for  herself 

Against  infection  and  the  hand  of  war; 

This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world; 

This  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea. 

Which  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a  wall. 

Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house, 

Against  the  envy  of  less  happy  lands: 

This  blessed  plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  England. 

•  •••••• 

This  England  never  did,  nor  never  shall. 

Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  a  conqueror. 

But  when  it  first  did  help  to  wound  itself. 

Now  these  her  princes  are  come  home  again. 

Come  the  three  corners  of  the  world  in  arms 

And  we  shall  shock  them.  Nought  shall  make  us  rue, 

If  England  to  herself  do  rest  but  true. 


CHAPTER  XI 


RALEIGH  AND  TUB  VISION  OF  THS  WEST 

Conquerors  first,  prospectors  second,  then  the 
pioneers:  that  is  the  order  of  those  by  whom 
America  was  opened  up  for  English-speaking  peo- 
ple. No  Elizabethan  colonies  took  root.  There- 
fore the  age  of  Elizabethan  sea-dogs  was  one  of 
conquerors  and  prospectors,  not  one  of  pioneering 
colonists  at  all. 

Spain  and  Portugal  alone  founded  sixteenth- 
century  colonies  that  have  had  a  continuous  life 
from  those  days  to  our  own.  Virginia  and  New 
England,  like  New  France,  only  b^an  as  perma- 
nent settlements  after  Drake  and  Queen  Elizabeth 
were  dead:  Virginia  in  1607,  New  France  in  1608, 
New  England  in  1620. 

It  is  true  that  Drake  and  his  sea-dogs  were  pros- 
pectors in  their  way.  So  were  the  soldiers,  gentle- 
men-adventurers, and  fighting  traders  in  theirs. 
On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  prospectors  them- 

m 


«06  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

selves  belong  to  the  class  of  conquerors,  while 
many  would  have  gludly  been  the  pioneers  of 
permanent  colonies.  Nevertheless  the  prospect- 
ors form  a  separate  dass;  and  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
though  an  adventurer  in  every  other  way  as  well, 
b  undoubtedly  their  chief.  His  colonies  failed. 
He  never  found  his  £1  Dorado.  He  died  a  ruined 
and  neglected  man.  But  still  he  was  the  chief  of 
those  whom  we  can  only  call  prospectors,  first, 
because  they  tried  their  fortune  ashore,  one  step 
beyond  the  conquering  sea-dogs,  and,  secondly, 
because  their  fortune  failed  them  just  one  step 
short  of  where  the  pioneering  colonists  began. 

A  man  so  various  that  he  seemed  to  be 
Not  one  but  all  mankind's  epitome 

is  a  description  written  about  a  very  different 
character.  But  it  is  really  much  more  appropriate 
to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  Courtier  and  would-be 
colonizer,  soldier  and  sailor,  statesman  and  scholar, 
poet  and  master  of  pros.,  Raleigh  had  one  ruling 
passion  greater  than  all  the  rest  combined.  In  a 
letter  about  America  to  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  the  son 
of  Queen  Elizabeth's  principal  minister  of  state. 
Lord  Burleigh,  he  expressed  this  great  determined 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  WEST  207 

purpose  of  his  life:  J  ihall  yet  lire  to  see  it  an  In- 
glishe  nation.  He  had  other  interests  in  abundance, 
perhaps  in  superabundance;  and  he  had  much 
more  than  the  usual  temptations  to  live  the  life  of 
fashion  with  just  enough  of  public  duty  to  satisfy 
both  the  queen  and  the  very  least  that  is  implied 
by  the  motto  NMew  obiige.  He  was  splendidly 
handsome  and  tall,  a  perfect  blend  of  strength  and 
grace,  f  uU  of  deep,  romantic  interest  in  great  thin^ 
far  and  near:  the  very  man  whom  women  dote  on. 
And  yet,  through  all  the  seductions  of  the  Court 
and  all  the  storm  and  stress  of  Europe,  he  steadily 
pursued  the  vision  of  that  West  which  he  would 
make  'an  Inglishe  nation.' 

He  left  Oxford  as  an  imdergraduate  to  serve  the 
Huguenots  in  France  under  Admiral  Coligny  and 
the  Protestants  in  Holland  under  William  of 
Orange.  Like  Hawkins  and  Drake,  he  hated 
Spain  with  all  his  heart  and  paid  off  many  a  score 
against  her  by  killing  Spanish  troops  at  Smerwick 
during  an  Irish  campaign  marked  by  ruthless 
slaughter  on  both  sides.  On  his  return  to  England 
he  soon  attracted  the  charmed  attention  of  the 
queen.  His  spreading  his  cloak  for  her  to  tread 
on,  lest  she  might  wet  her  feet,  is  one  of  those 
stories  which  ought  to  be  true  if  it's  not.   In  any 


108         EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

case  he  won  the  royal  favor,  was  granted  monopo- 
lies, promotion,  and  estates,  and  launched  upon 
the  full  flood-stream  of  fortune. 

He  was  not  yet  thirty  when  he  obtained  tot  his 
half-brothor.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  then  a  man  of 
thirty-eight,  a  royal  oonmiissron  'to  inhabit  and 
possess  all  remote  and  Heathen  lands  not  in  the 
possession  of  any  Christian  prince.'  The  draft  of 
Gilbert's  (Hriginal  prospectus,  dated  at  London,  the 
6th  of  November,  1577,  and  still  kept  there  in  the 
Record  Office,  is  an  appeal  to  Elizabeth  in  which  he 
proposed  'to  discover  and  inhabit  some  strange 
place.'  Gilbert  was  a  soldier  and  knew  what 
fighting  meant;  so  he  likewise  proposed  'to  set 
forth  certain  ships  of  war  to  the  New  Land,  which, 
with  your  good  licence,  I  will  undertake  without 
your  Majesty's  charge.  .  .  .  The  New  Land 
fish  is  a  principal  and  rich  and  everywhere  vendi- 
ble merchandise;  and  by  the  gain  thereof  shipping, 
victual,  munition,  and  the  transporting  of  five  or 
six  thousand  soldiers  may  be  defrayed.' 

But  Gilbert's  associates  cared  nothing  for  fish 
and  everything  for  gold.  He  went  to  the  West 
Indies,  lost  a  ship,  and  returned  without  a  for- 
tune. Next  year  he  was  f (wbidden  to  rq)eat  the 
experimrat. 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  WEST  209 
The  project  then  languished  until  the  fatal  voy- 
age of  1583,  when  Gilbert  set  sail  with  six  vessels, 
intending  to  occupy  Newfoundland  as  ihe  base 
from  which  to  colonize  southwards  until  an  armed 
New  England  should  meet  and  beat  New  Spain. 
How  vast  his  scheme!  How  pitiful  its  execution! 
And  yet  how  immeasurably  beyond  his  wildest 
dreams  the  actual  development  to-day!  Gilbert 
was  not  a  sea-dqg  but  a  soldier  with  an  uncanny 
reputation  for  being  a  regular  Jonah  who  *had  no 
good  hap  at  sea.'   He  was  also  passionately  self- 
willed,  and  Elizabeth  had  doubts  about  the  pro- 
r  ,:.  ^-  of  backing  him.   But  she  sent  him  a  gilt 
ai»..   •  by  way  of  good  luck  and  off  he  went  in 
June,  financed  chiefly  by  Raleigh,  whose  name  was 
given  to  the  flagship. 

Gilbert's  adventure  never  got  beyond  its  base 
in  Newfoundland.  His  ship  the  Delight  was 
wrecked.  The  crew  of  the  Raleigh  mutinied  and 
ran  her  home  to  England.  The  other  four  vessels 
held  on.  But  the  men,  for  the  most  part,  were 
neither  good  soldiers,  good  sailors,  nor  yet  good 
colonists,  but  ne'er-do-wells  and  desperadoes.  By 
September  the  e3q;)edition  was  returning  broken 
down.  Gilbert,  furious  at  the  sailors'  hints  that  he 
was  just  a  little  sea-shy,  would  persist  in  sticking 

14 


210  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

to  the  Lilliputian  ten-ton  Squirrel,  which  was  woe- 
fully top-hampered  with  guns  and  stores.  Before 
leaving  Newfoundland  he  was  implor'^d  to  aban- 
don her  and  bring  her  crew  aboard  a  bigger  craft. 
But  no.  *Do  not  fear,'  he  answered;  *we  are  as 
near  to  Heaven  by  sea  as  land.'  One  wild  night 
off  the  Azores  the  Squirrel  foundered  with  all 
hands. 

Amadas  and  Barlow  sailed  in  1584.  Pros- 
pecting for  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  they  discovered 
several  harbors  in  North  Carolina,  then  part  of  the 
vast  'plantation'  of  Virginia.  Roanoke  Island, 
Pamlico  and  Albemarle  Sounds,  as  well  as  the  in- 
tervening waters,  were  all  explored  with  enthusi- 
astic thoroughness  and  zeal.  Barlow,  a  skipper 
who  was  handy  with  his  pen,  described  the  scent 
of  that  fragrant  summer  land  in  terms  which 
attracted  the  attention  of  Bacon  at  the  time  and  of 
Dryden  a  century  later.  The  royal  charter  au- 
thorizing Raleigh  to  take  what  he  could  find  in  this 
strange  land  had  a  clause  granting  his  prospective 
colonists  'all  the  privileges  of  free  denizens  and 
persons  native  of  England  in  such  ample  manner  as 
'if  they  were  born  and  personally  resident  in  our 
said  realm  of  England. ' 

Next  year  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  who  was 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  WEST  211 
Raleigh's  cousin,  convoyed  out  to  Roanoke  the 
little  colony  which  Ralph  Lane  governed  and 
which,  as  we  have  seen  in  an  earlier  chapter,  Drake 
took  home  discomfited  in  1586.  There  might  have 
been  a  story  to  tell  of  successful  colonization,  in- 
stead of  failure,  if  Drake  had  kept  away  from 
Roanoke  that  year  or  if  he  had  tarried  a  few  days 
longer.    For  no  sooner  had  the  colony  departed  in 
Drake's  vessels  than  a  ship  sent  out  by  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  'freighted  with  all  maner  of  things  in 
most  plentiful  maner,'  arrived  at  Roanoke;  and 
'after  some  time  spent  in  seeking  our  Colony  up 
in  the  countrey,  and  not  finding  them,  returned 
with  all  the  aforesayd  provision  into  England.' 
About  a  fortnight  later  Sir  Richard  Grenville 
himself  arrived  wiUi  three  ships.   Not  wishing  to 
lose  possession  of  the  country  where  he  had  planted 
a  colony  the  year  bdore,  he  'landed  fifteene  mea 
in  the  Isle  of  Roanoak,  furnished  plentifully  with 
all  maner  of  provision  for  two  yeeres,  and  so  de- 
parted for  England.'    Grenville  unfortunately 
had  burnt  an  Indian  town  and  all  its  standing  com 
because  the  Indians  had  stolen  a  silver  cup.  Lane, 
too,  had  been  severe  in  dealing  with  the  natives  and 
they  had  tiu-ned  from  friends  to  foes.    These  and 
other  facts  were  carefully  recorded  on  the  spot  by 


SU  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

the  official  chronicler,  Thomas  Harriot,  better 
known  as  a  mathematician. 

Among  the  captains  who  had  come  out  undor 
Grenville  in  1585  was  Thomas  Cavendish,  a  young 
and  daring  gentleman-adventurer,  greatly  dis- 
tinguished as  such  even  in  that  adventurous  age, 
and  the  second  English  leader  to  circumnavigate 
the  globe.  When  Drake  was  taking  Lane's  men 
home  in  June,  1586,  Cavendish  was  making  the 
final  preparations  for  a  two-year  voyage.  He 
sailed  mostly  along  the  route  marked  out  by  Drake, 
and  many  of  his  adventures  were  of  much  the  same 
kind.  His  prime  object  was  to  make  the  voyage 
pay  a  handsome  dividend.  But  he  did  notable 
service  in  clipping  the  wings  of  Spain.  He  raided 
the  shipping  off  Chile  and  Peru,  took  the  Spanish 
flagship,  the  famous  Santa  Anna,  off  the  coast  of 
California,  and  on  his  return  home  in  1588  had  the 
satisfaction  of  reporting:  'I  burned  and  sank  nine- 
teen sail  of  ships,  both  small  and  great;  and  all 
the  villages  and  towns  that  ever  I  landed  at  I 
burned  and  spoiled. ' 

While  Cavendish  was  preying  on  Spanish  treas- 
ure in  America,  and  Duke  was  'singeing  the  King 
of  Spain's  beard'  in  Europe,  Raleigh  still  pursued 
his  colonizing  plans.   In  1587  John  White  and 


THE  VISION  OP  THE  WEST 


21S 


twelve  associates  received  incorporation  as  the 
'Governor  and  Assistants  of  the  City  of  Ralegh 
in  Virginia. '  The  fortunes  of  this  ambitious  city 
were  not  unlike  those  of  many  another  'boomed* 
and  'busted'  city  of  much  more  recent  date.  No 
time  was  lost  in  beginning.  Three  ships  arrived 
at  Roanoke  on  the  22nd  of  July,  1587.  Every 
effort  was  made  to  find  the  fifteen  men  left  behind 
the  year  before  by  Grenville  to  hold  possession  for 
the  Queen.  Momids  of  earth,  which  may  even 
now  be  traced,  so  piously  have  their  last  remains 
been  cared  for,  marked  the  site  of  the  fort.  From 
nat'  res'  of  Croatoan  Island  the  newcomers  learned 
that  Groatville's  men  had  been  murdered  by  hostfle 
Indians. 

One  native  friend  was  found  in  Manteo,  a  chief 
whom  Barlow  had  taken  to  England  and  Grenville 
had  brought  back.  Manteo  was  now  living  with 
his  own  tribe  of  sea-coast  Indians  on  Croatoan 
Island.  But  the  mischief  between  red  and  white 
had  been  begun;  and  though  Manteo  had  been 
baptized  and  was  recognized  as  'The  Lord  of 
Roanoke'  the  races  were  becoming  fatally  es- 
tranged. 

After  a  month  Governor  White  went  home  for 
more  men  and  supplies,  leaving  most  of  the  colo- 


214  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

nists  at  Roanoke.  He  found  Elizabeth,  Raleigh, 
and  Vie  rest  all  working  to  meet  the  Great  Armada. 
Yet,  even  during  the  following  year,  the  momen- 
tous year  of  1588,  Raleigh  managed  to  spare  two 
pinnaces,  with  fifteen  colonists  aboard,  well  pro- 
vided with  all  that  was  most  needed.  A  Spanish 
squadron,  however,  forced  both  pinnaces  to  run 
bacJc  for  their  lives.  After  this  frustrated  attempt 
two  more  years  passed  before  White  could  again 
sail  for  Virginia.  In  August,  1590,  his  trumpeter 
sounded  all  the  old  familiar  English  calls  as  he 
approached  the  little  fort.  No  answer  came.  The 
colony  w?s  lost  for  ever.  White  had  arranged  that 
if  the  colonists  should  be  obliged  to  move  away 
they  should  carve  the  name  of  the  new  settlement 
on  the  fort  or  surrounding  trees,  and  that  if  there 
was  either  danger  or  distress  they  should  cut  a 
cross  above.  The  one  word  croatoan  was  all 
White  ever  found.  There  was  no  ^ross.  White's 
beloved  colony,  White's  favorite  daughter  and  her 
little  girl,  were  p  rhaps  in  hiding  But  supplies 
were  nmning  short.  White  was  a  mere  passenger 
on  board  the  ship  that  brought  him;  and  the  crew 
were  getting  impatient,  so  impatient  for  'refresh- 
ment' and  a  Spanish  prize  that  they  sailed  past 
Croatoan,  refusing  to  stop  a  single  hour. 


THE  VISION  OP  THE  WEST  215 

Perhaps  White  learnt  more  than  is  recorded  and 
was  satisfied  that  all  the  colonists  were  dead. 
Perhaps  not.  Nobody  knows.  Only  a  wander- 
ing tradition  comes  out  of  that  impenetrable  mys- 
tery and  circles  round  the  not  impossible  romance 
of  young  Virginia  Dare.  Her  father  was  one  of 
White's  twelve  *  Assistants.'  Her  mother,  Eleanor, 
was  White's  daughter.  Virginia  herself,  the  first 
of  all  true  'native-bom'  Americans,  was  bom  on 
the  18th  of  August,  1587.  Perhaps  Manteo,  'Lord 
of  Roanoke,'  saved  the  whole  family  whose  name 
has  been  commemorated  by  that  of  the  North 
Carolina  county  of  Dare.  Perhaps  Virginia  Dare 
alone  survived  to  be  an  'Indian  Queen'  about  the 
time  the  first  permanent  Anglo-American  colony 
was  founded  in  1607,  twenty  years  after  her  birth. 
Who  knows? 

These  twenty  sundering  years,  from  the  end  of 
this  abortive  colony  in  1587  to  the  beginning  of  the 
first  permanent  colony  in  1607,  constitute  a  period 
that  saw  the  close  of  one  age  and  the  opening 
of  another  in  every  relation  of  Anglo-American 
affairs. 

Nor  was  it  only  in  Anglo-American  affairs  that 
change  was  rife.    'The  Honourable  East  India 


«16         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

Company'  entered  upon  its  wonderful  career. 
Shakespeare  began  to  write  his  immortal  plays. 
Th**  chosen  translators  began  their  work  on  the 
Authorized  Version  of  the  English  Bible.  The 
Puritans  were  becoming  a  force  within  the  body 
politic  as  well  as  in  religion.  Ulster  was  '  planted ' 
with  Englishmen  and  Lowland  Scots.  In  the 
midst  of  all  these  changes  the  great  Queen,  grown 
old  and  very  lonely,  died  in  1608;  and  with  her 
ended  the  glorious  Tudor  dynasty  of  England. 
James,  pusillanimous  and  pedantic  son  of  Damley 
and  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  ascended  the  throne  as 
the  first  of  the  sinister  Stuarts,  and,  truckling  to 
vindictive  Spain,  threw  Raleigh  into  prison  nndet 
suspended  sentence  of  death. 

There  was  a  break  of  no  less  than  ISfteen  years  in 
English  efforts  to  colonize  America.  Nothing  was 
tried  between  the  last  attempt  at  Roanoke  in  1587 
and  the  first  attempt  in  Massachusetts  in  1602, 
when  thirty-two  people  sailed  from  England  with 
Bartholomew  Gosnold,  formerly  a  skipper  in 
Raleigh's  employ.  Gosnold  made  straight  for  the 
coast  of  Maine,  which  he  sighted  in  May.  He  then 
coasted  south  to  Cape  Cod.  Continuing  south  he 
entered  Buzzard's  Bay,  where  he  landed  on  Cutty- 
hunk  Island.   Here,  on  a  little  island  in  a  lake  — 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  WEST  217 

an  island  within  an  island  —  he  built  a  fort  round 
which  the  colony  was  expected  to  grow.  But  sup- 
plies began  to  run  out.  There  was  bad  blood  over 
the  proper  division  of  what  remained.  The  would- 
be  colonists  could  not  agree  with  those  who  had  no 
intention  of  staying  behind.  The  result  was  that 
the  entire  project  had  to  be  given  up.  Gosnold 
sailed  home  with  the  whole  disgusted  crew  and  a 
cargo  of  sassafras  and  cedar.  Such  was  the  first 
proq)ecting  ever  done  for  what  is  now  New  Eng- 
land. 

The  following  year,  1603,  just  after  the  death  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  some  merchant-ventiurers  of 
Bristol  sent  out  two  vessels  under  Martin  Pring. 
Like  Gosnold,  Pring  first  made  the  coast  of  Maine 
and  then  felt  his  way  south.  Unlike  Gosnold, 
however,  he  'bore  into  the  great  Gulfe'  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  where  he  took  in  a  cargo  of  sassafras 
at  Plymouth  Harbor.  But  that  was  all  the  pros- 
pecting done  this  time.  There  was  no  attempt  at 
colonizing. 

Two  years  later  another  prospector  was  sent  out 
by  a  more  important  company.  The  Earl  of 
Southampton  and  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  were  the 
chief  promoters  of  this  enterprise.  Gorges,  as 
'Lord  Proprietary  of  the  Province  of  Maine,'  is  a 


818         EUZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

well-known  character  in  the  subsequent  history 
of  New  England.  Lord  Southampton,  as  Shake- 
speare's only  patron  and  greatest  personal  friend, 
is  forever  famous  through  the  world.  The  chief 
prospector  chosen  by  the  company  was  George 
Weymouth,  who  landed  on  the  coast  of  Maine, 
explored  a  little  of  the  surrounding  country,  kid- 
napped five  Indians,  and  returned  to  England  with 
a  glowing  account  of  what  he  had  seen. 

The  cumulative  effect  of  the  three  expeditions 
of  Gosnold,  Pring,  and  Weymouth  was  a  revival 
of  interest  in  colonization.   Prominent  men  soon 
got  together  and  formed  two  companies  which  w«« 
formally  chartered  by  King  James  on  the  10th  of 
April.  1606.    The  'first'  or  'southern  colony,' 
which  came  to  be  known  as  the  London  Company 
because  most  of  its  members  lived  there,  was  au- 
thorized to  make  its  'first  plantation  at  any  place 
upon  the  coast  of  Virginia  or  America  between 
the  four-and-thirty  and  one-and-forty  degrees  of 
latitude. '   The  northern  or  '  second  colony, '  after- 
wards called  the  Plymouth  Company,  was  author- 
ized to  settle  any  place  between  38°  and  45''  north, 
,  thus  overlapping  both  the  first  company  to  the 
south  and  the  French  to  the  north. 
In  the  summer  of  the  same  year,  1606,  Henry 


THE  VISION  OP  THE  WEST  S19 
Challons  took  two  ships  of  the  Plymouth  Company 

round  by  the  "West  Indies,  where  he  was  caught  in 
a  fog  by  the  Spaniards.  Later  in  the  season  Pring 
went  out  and  explored '  North  Virginia.  *  In  May, 
1607,  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  under  George 
Popham,  started  to  colonize  this  'North  Virginia.' 
In  August  they  landed  in  Maine  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Kennebec,  where  they  built  a  fort,  some 
houses,  and  a  pinnace.  Finding  themselves  short 
of  provisions,  two-thirds  of  their  number  returned 
to  England  late  in  the  same  year.  The  remaining 
third  passed  a  terrible  winter.  Popham  died,  and 
Raleigh  Gilbert  succeeded  him  as  governor. 
When  spring  came  all  the  survivors  of  the  colony 
sailed  home  in  the  pinnace  they  had  built  and 
the  enterprise  was  abandoned.  The  reports  of  the 
colonists,  after  their  winter  in  Maine,  wore  to  the 
effect  that  the  second  or  northon  colony  was  'not 
habitable  for  Englishmen.' 

In  the  meantime  the  permanent  foundation  of 
the  first  or  southern  colony,  the  real  Virginia,  was 
well  under  way.  The  same  number  of  intending 
emigrants  went  out,  a  hundred  and  twenty.  On 
the  26th  of  April,  1607,  'about  four  a-docke  in  the 
morning,  wee  descried  the  Land  of  Virginia:  the 
same  day  wee  entered  mto  the  Bay  of  Chesupioc' 


990  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

[Chesapeake].  Thus  begins  the  tale  of  Captain 
John  Smith,  of  the  founding  of  Jamestown,  and  of 
a  permanent  Virginia,  the  first  of  the  future  United 
States. 

Now  that  we  have  seen  one  spot  in  vast  America 
really  become  the  promise  of  the  'Inglishe  nation' 
which  Raleigh  had  longed  for,  we  must  return  once 
more  to  Raleigh  himself  as,  mocked  by  his  tantaliz- 
ing vision,  he  looked  out  on  a  changing  world  from 
his  secular  Mount  Pisgah  in  the  prison  Tower  of 
London. 

By  this  time  he  had  felt  both  extremes  of  for- 
tune to  the  full.  During  the  travesty  of  justice 
at  his  trial  the  attorney-general,  having  no 
sound  argument,  covered  him  with  slanderous 
abuse.  These  are  three  of  the  false  accusations  on 
which  he  wa..  condemned  to  death:  'Viperous 
traitor,'  *  damnable  atheist,'  and  'spider  of  hell.' 
Hawkins,  Drake,  Frobisher,  and  Grenville,  all 
were  dead.  So  Raleigh,  last  of  the  great  Eliza- 
bethan lions,  was  caged  and  baited  for  the  sport 
of  Spain. 

Six  of  his  twelve  years  of  imprisonment  were 
lightened  by  the  companionship  of  his  wife  1  .za- 
beth  Throgmorton,  most  beautiful  of  all  the  late 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  WEST  Ml 

Queen's  maids  of  honor.   Another  solnce  was  the 

History  qf  the  World,  the  writing  of  which  set  his 
mind  free  to  wander  forth  at  will  although  his  body 
stayed  behind  the  bars.  But  the  contrast  was  too 
poignant  not  to  vring  this  cry  of  anguish  from  his 
preface:  'Yet  when  we  once  come  in  sight  of  the 
Port  of  death,  to  which  all  winds  drive  us,  and 
when  by  letting  fall  that  fatal  Anchor,  which  can 
never  be  weighed  again,  the  navigation  of  this  life 
takes  end:  Then  it  is,  I  say,  that  our  own  cogita- 
tions (those  sad  and  severe  cogitations,  formerly 
beaten  from  us  by  our  health  and  felicity)  return 
again,  and  pay  us  to  the  uttermost  for  all  the 
pleasing  passages  of  our  life  past.' 

At  length,  in  the  spring  of  1616,  Raleigh  was 
released,  though  still  unpardoned.  He  and  his 
devoted  wife  unmediately  put  all  that  remained 
of  theur  fortune  into  a  new  vrature.  Twenty  years 
before  this  he  thought  he  could  make  'Discovery 
the  mighty,  rich,  and  beautiful  Empire  of  Guianu, 
and  of  that  great  and  golden  city,  which  the  Span- 
iard- rail  El  Dorado,  and  the  natives  call  Manoa.' 
Now  he  would  go  back  to  find  the  El  Dorado  of 
his  dreams,  somewhere  inland,  that  mysterious 
Manoa  among  those  southern  Mountains  of  Bright 
Stones  which  lay  behind  the  Spanish  Main.  The 


9M         EUZABEI  HAN  SEA-DOGS 

king's  cupidity  was  roused;  and  so,  in  1617. 
Raleitjh  was  commissiofierf  as  the  admiral  of  four- 
teen sail    In  November      arrived  off  the  coast 

tha.  guarucd  all  the  fabled  wealth  itill  'v!  ir - 
disrov'-red  in  the  far  recesses  of  tl  •(  'rii"  nn  mlds. 
Ou  i/'ii,  Manoa,  El  Dorado  —  the  inlaad  v<Hoes 
called  hir"  "ft. 

But  ^  ■  ,rir<ls  bar  U  dv  "  :iy  d  a, 
Icf  ing  the  instil   'loii-  ir  j  f^l. 

The  English  lore  ^  in.  -  wcui*  d  i 
folio  cd.  Raleigh^  son  nd  ir  wa.  kil,  J 
hi^  lieutenant  comnuited  si  n..  ifis  - 
to  mutiny.  Spanish  w  ^  <i  dps  clo  ^ 
in;  and  the  forlorn  r  onaut  '  Jie  ex  tMf  jq 
which  such  hopes  wer  built  er  st  iing  home 
to  England.  Th^re  Raldgii  w»t  a.  ited  and 
aent  to  the  Uodc  <>n  the  i9th  of  (-ctober,  1618. 
He  had  played  ih<-  grt  gaoH-  oi  fe-and-desA 
and  lost  it.  Wlien  he  inoun^ec  scaffoM,  he 
asked  to  se^  the  axe.  Feeling  dge,  smSed 
and  said:  Tis  ^  sharp  med  .  bur  a  -jre  for 
a"  seases."  <  i  ht  * >:ire'  I  n«  k  and  died 
lik<    ae  a*'  -  ve     ae  deat  Queen  as  her 

Ctt}   tin  o        Gu.  . 


CHAPTER  Xn 


Drake's  end 

Draks  in  disfavor  after  1589  seems  a  contradic- 
tion that  nothing  can  ettplain.  It  can,  however, 
be  quite  easily  explained,  though  never  explained 
away.  He  had  simply  fjtiled  to  make  the  Lisbon 
Expedition  pay — a  heinous  offence  in  days  when 
the  navy  was  as  much  a  r<'venue  department  as 
the  customs  or  excise.  He  had  also  failed  to  take 
Lisbon  itself.  The  reasons  why  mattered  nothing 
either  to  the  disappointed  government  or  to  the 
general  public. 

But,  six  years  later,  in  1595,  when  Drake  was 
fifty  and  Hawkius  sixty-three,  England  called  on 
them  both  to  strike  another  blow  at  Spain.  Eliza- 
beth was  helping  Henry  IV  of  France  against  the 
League  of  French  and  Spanish  Catholics.  Henry, 
astute  as  he  was  gallant,  had  found  Paris  'worth 
a  mass'  and,  to  Elizabeth's  dismay,  had  gone 
straight  over  to  the  Church  d  Rome  with  terms  of 


£24  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

toleration  for  the  Huguenots.  The  war  against 
the  Holy  League,  however,  had  not  yet  ended. 
The  effect  of  Henry's  conversion  was  to  make  a 
more  united  France  against  the  encroaching  power 
of  Spain.  And  every  eye  in  England  was  soon 
turned  on  Drake  and  Hawkins  for  a  stroke  at 
Spanish  power  beyond  the  sea. 

Drake  and  Hawkins  formed  a  most  imhappy 
combination,  made  worse  by  the  fact  that  Hawldns, 
now  old  beyond  his  years,  soured  by  misfortune, 
and  staled  for  the  sea  by  long  spells  of  office  work, 
was  put  in  as  a  check  on  Drake,  in  whom  Elizabeth 
had  lost  her  former  confidence.  Sir  Thomas 
Baskerville  was  to  comn:and  the  troops.  Here, 
at  least,  no  better  choice  could  have  possibly  been 
made.  Baskerville  had  fought  with  rare  distinc- 
tion in  the  Brest  campaign  and  before  that  in  the 
Netherlands. 

There  was  the  usual  hesitation  about  letting  the 
fleet  go  far  from  home.  The  'purely  defensive' 
school  was  still  strong;  Elizabeth  in  certain  moods 
belonged  to  it;  and  an  incident  which  took  place 
about  this  time  seemed  to  give  weight  to  the  argu- 
ments of  the  defensivists.  A  small  Spanish  force, 
obliged  to  find  water  and  provisions  in  a  hurry,  put 
into  Mouaehole  in  Comwall  and,  finding  no  op- 


DRAKE  S  END  225 

position,  burnt  several  villages  down  to  the  ground. 
The  moment  these  Spaniards  heard  that  Drake 
and  Hawkins  were  at  Plymouth  they  decamped. 
But  this  ridiculous  raid  threw  the  country  into 
doubt  or  consternation.  Elizabeth  was  as  brave 
as  a  lion  for  herself.  But  she  never  grasped  the 
meaning  of  naval  strategy,  and  she  was  supersen- 
sitive to  any  strong  general  opinion,  however  false. 
Drake  and  Hawkins,  with  Baskerville's  troops  (all 
in  transports)  and  many  supply  vessels  for  the 
West  India  voyage,  were  ordered  to  cruise  about 
Ireland  and  Spain  looking  for  enemies.  The 
admirals  at  once  pointed  out  that  this  was  the  woric 
of  the  Channel  Fleet,  not  that  of  a  joint  expedition 
bound  for  America.  Then,  just  as  the  Queen  was 
penning  an  angry  reply,  she  received  a  letter  from 
Drake,  saying  that  the  chief  Spanish  treasure  ship 
from  Mexico  had  been  seen  in  Porto  Rico  little 
better  than  a  wreck,  and  that  there  was  time  to 
take  her  if  they  could  only  sail  at  once.  The  ex- 
pedition was  on  the  usual  joint-stock  lines  and 
Elizabeth  was  the  principal  shareholder.  She 
swallowed  the  bait  whole;  and  sent  sailing  orders 
down  to  Plymouth  by  return. 

And  so,  on  the  28th  of  August,  1595,  twenty-five 
hundred  men  in  twoity-seven  vessds  safled  out, 

IS 


226         ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 

bound  for  New  Spain.  Surprise  was  essential; 
for  New  Spain,  taught  by  repeated  experience,  was 
well  armed;  and  twenty-five  hundred  men  were 
less  formidable  now  than  five  hundred  twenty 
years  before.  Arrived  at  the  Canaries,  Las  Palmas 
was  found  too  strong  to  carry  by  immediate  as- 
sault; and  Drake  had  no  time  to  attack  it  in  form. 
He  was  two  months  late  already;  so  he  determined 
to  push  on  to  the  West  Indies. 

When  Drake  reached  Porto  Rico,  he  found  the 
Spanish  in  a  measure  forewarned  and  forearmed. 
Though  he  astonished  the  garrison  by  standing 
boldly  into  the  harbor  and  dropping  anchor  close 
to  a  masked  battery,  the  real  surprise  was  now 
against  him.  The  Spanish  gunners  got  the  range 
to  an  inch,  brought  down  the  flagship's  mizzen, 
knocked  Drake's  chair  from  under  him,  killed  two 
senior  officers  beside  him,  and  wounded  many  more. 
In  the  meantime  Hawkins,  worn  out  by  his  exer- 
tions, had  died.  This  reception,  added  to  the  pre- 
vious failures  and  the  astonishing  strength  of  Porto 
Bico,  produced  a  most  depressing  dBfect.  Drake 
wd^ied  anchor  and  went  out.  He  was  soon  back 
*  in  a  new  place,  devcarly  ahidded  from  the  Spanish 
guns  by  a  couple  of  idands.  After  aome  mxxee 
manceuvres  he  attadced  the  Spanish  fleet  with  fire- 


DRAKE'S  END  227 

balls  and  by  boarding.  When  ^  bummg  frigate 
lit  up  the  whole  wild  scene,  the  Span'-Ii  gunners 
and  musketeers  poured  into  the  English  ships  such 
a  concentrated  fire  that  Drake  was  compelled 
to  retreat.  He  n*  'cd  the  daring  plan  of  run- 
ning straight  intc  harbor,  where  there  might 
still  be  a  chance.  Bat  the  Spaniards  sank  four  of 
their  own  valuable  vessels  in  the  harbor  mouth  — 
guns,  stores,  and  all  —  just  in  the  nick  of  time,  and 
thus  completely  barred  the  way. 

Foiled  again,  Drake  dashed  for  the  mainland, 
seized  La  Hacha,  burnt  it,  ravaged  the  surround- 
ing country,  and  got  away  with  a  successful 
haul  of  treasiu'e;  then  he  seized  Santa  Marta 
and  Nombre  de  Dios,  both  of  which  were  found 
nearly  empty.  The  whole  of  New  Spain  was  tak- 
ing the  alarm  —  The  Dragon's  back  again!  Mean- 
while a  fleet  of  more  than  twice  Drake's  trength 
was  coming  out  from  Spain  to  attack  him  in  the 
rear.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  Baskerville  and  his 
soldiers,  who  had  landed  at  Nombre  de  Dios  and 
started  overland,  were  in  full  retreat  along  the 
road  from  Panama,  having  found  an  impregnable 
Spanish  position  on  the  way.  It  was  a  sad  begin- 
ning for  1596,  the  centennial  year  of  England's 
first  connection  with  America. 


228  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS 


'  Since  our  return  from  Panama  he  never  carried 
mirth  nor  joy  in  his  face,'  wrote  one  of  Basker- 
ville's  oflScers  who  was  constantly  near  Drake. 
A  council  of  war  was  called  and  Drake,  making  the 
best  of  it,  asked  which  they  would  have,  Truxillo, 
the  port  of  Honduras,  or  the  'golden  towns'  round 
about  Lake  Nicaragua.  'Both,*  answered  Basker- 
ville,  *one  after  the  other. '  So  the  course  was  laid 
for  San  Juan  on  the  Nicaragua  coast.  A  head 
wind  forced  Drake  to  anchor  under  the  island  of 
Veragua,  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  west  of 
Nombre  de  Dios  Bay  and  right  in  the  deadliest 
part  of  that  fever-stricken  coast.  The  men  began 
to  sicken  and  die  off.  Drake  complained  at  table 
that  the  place  had  changed  for  the  worse.  His 
earlier  memories  of  New  Spain  were  of  a  land  like  a 
'pleasant  and  delicious  arbour'  very  different  from 
the  'vast  and  desert  wilderness'  he  felt  all  round 
him  now.  The  wind  held  foul.  More  and  more 
men  lay  dead  or  dying.  At  last  Drake  himself, 
the  man  of  iron  consHtution  and  steel  nerves,  fell 
ill  and  had  to  keep  bis  cabin.  Then  reports  were 
handed  in  to  say  the  stores  were  running  low  and 
that  there  would  soon  be  too  few  hands  to  man  the 
ships.  On  this  he  gave  the  order  to  weigh  and 
'take  the  wind  as  God  had  sent  it.* 


DRAKE'S  END  m 

So  they  stood  out  from  that  pestilential  Mos- 
quito Gulf  and  came  to  anchor  in  the  fine  harbor  of 
Puerto  Bello,  which  the  Spaniards  had  chosen  to 
replace  the  one  at  Nombre  de  Dios,  twenty  miles 
east.  Here,  in  the  night  of  the  27th  of  January, 
Drake  suddenly  sprang  out  of  his  berth,  dressed 
himself,  and  raved  of  battles,  fleets.  Armadas, 
Plymouth  Hoe,  and  plots  against  his  own  com- 
mand. The  frenzy  passed  away.  He  fell  ex- 
hausted, and  was  lifted  back  to  bed  again.  Then, 
Mike  a  Christian,  he  yielded  up  his  spirit  quietly.' 

His  funeral  rites  befitted  his  renown.  The  great 
new  Spanish  fort  of  Puerto  Bello  was  given  to  the 
flames,  as  were  nearly  all  the  Spanish  prizes,  and 
even  two  of  his  own  English  ships;  for  there  were 
now  no  sailors  left  to  man  them.  Thus,  amid  the 
thunder  of  the  guns  whose  voice  he  knew  so  well, 
and  surrounded  by  consuming  pyres  afloat  and  on 
the  shore,  his  body  was  committed  to  the  deep, 
while  muflBed  drums  rolled  out  their  last  salute  and 
trumpets  wailed  his  requiem. 


APPENDED 


NOTE  ON  TUDOB  8HIPPIN0 

In  the  uxteeoth  century  there  was  no  hard-and-fast 
distinction  between  naval  and  all  other  craft.  The 
aovereign  had  his  own  fighting  vesseb;  and  in  the 
course  of  the  seventeenth  century  these  gradually 
evolved  into  a  Royal  Navy  maintained  entirely  by  the 
country  aa  a  whole  and  ^voted  solely  to  the  national 
defence.  But  in  earlier  days  this  modern  system  was 
difficult  everywhere  and  impossible  in  England.  The 
English  monarch,  for  all  his  power,  had  no  means  of 
keeping  up  a  great  army  and  navy  without  the  hdp 
oi  Parliament  and  the  general  consent  6t  the  people. 
The  Crown  had  great  estates  and  revenues;  but  nothing 
like  enough  to  make  war  on  a  national  scale.  Con- 
sequently king  and  pe<^le  went  into  partnmhip, 
sometimes  in  peace  as  well  as  war.  When  fighting 
stopped,  and  no  danger  seemed  to  threaten,  the  king 
would  use  his  men-of-war  in  trade  himself,  or  even  hire 
them  out  to  merchants.  Hie  merchants,  for  their 
part,  furnished  vessels  to  the  king  in  time  of  war. 
Except  as  supply  ships,  however,  these  auxiliaries 
were  never  a  great  success.  The  privateers  built 
expressly  tot  fighting  were  the  cmly  ships  that  could 
af^roach  the  men-df-war. 

SSI 


i32 


APPENDIX 


Vet,  strangely  enough,  King  Henry's  first  modem 
men-of-wur  grew  out  uf  a  merchant-ship  model,  and 
a  foreign  one  at  that.   Throughout  ancieiit  and  medie- 
val times  the  'long  ship*  was  the  man-of-war  while 
the  'round  ship'  was  the  merchantman.    Hut  the  long 
ship  was  always  some  sort  of  galley,  which,  as  we  have 
seen  repeatedly,  depended  on  its  oan  and  uied  muIs 
only  occasionally,  and  then  not  in  action,  while  the 
round  ship  was  built  to  carry  cargo  and  to  under 
sail.    The  Italian  naval  arcl:>ects,  then  tae  most 
scientific  in  the  world,  were  trying  to  evdve  two  types 
<rf  vessel:  one  that  c«)uld  act  a*  light  cavalry  on  the 
wings  of  a  galley  fleet,  the  other  that  could  carry  big 
cargoes  safely  through  the  pirate-haunied  seas,  in 
both  types  sail  power  and  fighting  power  were  essential. 
Finally  a  comp'omise  resulted  and  the  galleasse 
appeared.    The  galleasse  was  a  hybrid  between  the 
galley  and  the  sailing  vessel,  between  the  'long  ship' 
that  was  several  times  as  long  as  it  was  broad  and  the 
'round  ship'  that  was  only  two  or  three  times  as  long 
as  its  beam.    Then,  as  the  oc  inic  routes  gained  on 
those  of  tl     inland  sea.s,  and  as  <  f  f  --ic  sea  power 
gained  in  th>  same  proportion,  the  jt^...  .nopeared. 
The  galleon  had  no  oars  at  all,  as  the  ^  v  i  i  d  Vasses 
had,  ami  it  gained  more  in  sail  power     i     •  i  ist  by 
dropping  oars.    It  was,  in  fact,  the  di'      p  ^.genitor 
of   he  old  three-decker  which  some  people  still  alive 
can  well  remember. 

At  the  time  the  Cabots  and  Columbus  were  dis- 
covering America  the  Venetians  had  evolvr.'^  the 
merchant-galleasse  for  their  trade  with  Lom.on:  they 
called  it,  ind^,  the  gaUetma  di  Londra.   Then,  by 


APPENDIX 


£S3 


the  time  Henry  VIII  was  building  his  new  modern 
nil  y,  the  real  galleon  had  been  evolved  (out  6t  the 
ItaH«an  new  war-  and  older  merchant-galleaaseH) 

by  England,  France,  and  Scotland;  but  by  England 
be^t  of  all.  In  original  ideus  of  naval  architecture 
£i.  gland  was  generally  behind,  as  she  continued  to  be 
till  well  within  living  vatmory.  Nelson's  captains 
competed  eagerly  for  the  command  of  French  prizes, 
which  were  better  built  and  from  superior  designs. 
The  American  frigates  of  181S  were  incomparably 
better  than  the  ctMrespondiiig  classes  in  the  British 
service  were;  and  so  on  in  many  other  instances.  But, 
in  spite  of  being  rather  slow,  conservative,  and  rule-of- 
thumb,  the  English  were  already  beginning  to  develop 
a  national  sea-sense  far  beyrad  that  of  any  other 
people.  They  could  not,  indeed,  do  otherwise  and 
live.  Henry's  poiicy,  England's  position,  the  dawn 
of  oceanic  strategy,  and  the  discovery  of  America, 
aU  comlMned  to  make  her  navy  by  far  the  moat  im- 
portant single  factor  in  England's  problems  with  the 
world  at  large.  As  with  the  British  Empire  now,  so 
with  England  then:  the  choice  lay  between  her  being 
efthn  first  ot  nowlme* 

Ileniy's  reasoning  and  his  people's  instinct  having 
led  to  ihe  same  resolve,  everyone  with  any  sea-sense, 
■  speciiliy  shipwrights  like  Fletciier  of  Hye,  began 
wi«r'.r.g  towafds  the  best  types  th«i  obtainable, 
i'-ere  were  mistakes  in  plenty.  The  theory  of  naval 
architecture  in  England  was  never  both  sound  and 
strong  enough  to  get  lU  own  way  against  all  opposition. 
But  with  tlie  iiMK  of  life  and  di»th  ahmys  depend- 
ent OB  aea  power,  and  with  so  many  men  of  eveiy 


234 


APPENDIX 


class  following  the  sea,  there  was  at  all  events  the 
biggest  rough-and-tumble  school  of  practical  seaman- 
ship that  any  leading  country  ever  had.  The  two 
essential  steps  were  quickly  taken:  first,  from  oared 
galleys  with  very  little  sail  power  to  the  hybrid  gal- 
leasse  with  much  more  sail  and  much  less  in  the  way 
of  oars;  secondly,  from  this  to  the  purely  sailing 
galleon. 

With  the  galleon  we  enter  the  age  of  sailing  tactics 
which  decided  the  fate  of  the  oversea  world.  This 
momentous  age  began  with  Drake  and  the  English 
galleon.  It  ended  with  Nelson  and  the  first-rate, 
three-decker,  ship-of-the-line.  But  it  was  one  through- 
out; for  its  beginning  differed  from  its  end  no  more 
than  a  father  differs  from  his  son. 

One  famous  Tudor  vessel  deserves  some  special  notice, 
not  because  of  her  excellence  but  because  of  her  defects. 

The  Henry  Orace  d  JHeu,  or  Greni  Harry  as  she  was 
generally  called,  launched  in  1514,  was  Henry's  own 
flagship  on  his  way  to  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold 
in  1520.  She  had  a  gala  suit  of  sails  and  pennants, 
all  mode  of  damasked  cloth  of  gold.  Her  quarters, 
rides,  and  tops  were  emblazoned  with  heraldic  targets. 
Court  artists  painted  her  to  show  His  Majesty  on  board 
wearing  cloth  of  gold,  edged  with  the  royal  ermine; 
as  well  as  bright  crimson  jacket,  sleeves,  and  breeches, 
with  a  long  white  featW  in  his  cap.  Doubtless,  too. 
His  Majesty  of  France  paid  her  all  the  proper  com- 
pliments; while  every  man  who  was  then  what  reporters 
are  to-day  talked  her  up  to  the  top  of  his  bent.  No 
single  vessel  evw  had  greater  publicity  till  the  famous 


APPENDIX 


235 


first  Dreadnought  of  our  own  day  appeared  in  the 
British  navy  nearly  four  hundred  years  later. 

But  the  much  advertised  Cheat  Harry  was  not  a 
mighty  prototype  of  a  world-> 'ide-copied  class  of 
battleships  like  the  modern  Dreadnought.  With  her 
lavish  decorations,  her  towering  superstructures  fore 
and  aft,  and  her  general  aping  of  a  floating  castle,  she 
was  the  wonder  of  all  the  landsmen  in  her  own  age,  as 
she  has  been  the  delight  of  "Picturesque  historians  ever 
since.  But  she  marked  no  advance  in  naval  archi- 
tecture, rather  the  revere.  She  was  the  last  great 
English  ship  of  raediteval  times.  Twenty-five  years 
after  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  Henry  was  com- 
manding another  Eughsh  fleet,  the  first  of  modem 
times,  and  therefore  one  in  which  the  out-of-date 
Great  Harry  had  no  proper  place  at  all.  She  was 
absurdly  top-hamijered  and  over-gimned.  And,  for 
all  her  thousand  tons,  she  must  have  bucketed  about 
in  Um  chops  of  the  Channel  with  the  same  sort  of 
hobby-horse,  see-sawing  pitch  that  bothered  Captain 
Concas  in  1893  when  sailing  an  exact  reproduction  of 
Columbus's  flagship,  the  Santa  Maria,  across  the  North 
Atlantic  to  the  great  World's  Fair  at  Chicago. 

In  her  own  day  the  galleon  was  the  'great  ship,' 
'capital  ship,'  'ship-of-the-line-of-battle,'  or  'battleship' 
on  which  the  main  fight  turned.  But  just  as  our 
modem  fleets  require  three  principal  kinds  of  vessels  — 
battleships,  cmisers,  and  'mosquito'  oraft  —  so  did 
the  fleets  of  Henry  and  Elizabeth.  The  galleon  did 
the  same  work  as  the  old  three-decker  of  Nelson's  time 
or  the  battleship  of  to-day.  The  'pinnace'  (quite 
diffoent  trom  mcnre  modon  lannaoes)  was  the  frigate 


'1 1^' 


286 


APPENDIX 


at  the  cruiser.  And,  in  Henry  VIII's  fleet  of  1545, 
the  'row-barge'  was  the  principal  'mosquito'  craft, 
like  the  modern  torpedo-bcat,  destroyer,  or  even  mb- 
marine.  Of  course  the  cone^KHufenoe  it  hr  from  being 
complete  in  any  class. 

The  EngUsh  galleon  gradually  developed  more  sail 
and  gun  power  as  wril  as  handineas  in  action.  Broad- 
side fire  began.  When  used  against  the  Armada,  it 
had  grown  very  powerful  indeed.  At  that  time  the 
best  guns,  some  of  v/hich  are  still  in  existence,  were 
nearly  as  good  as  those  at  Trafalgar  or  aboard  the 
smart  American  frigates  that  did  so  well  in  '1812.' 
When  galleon  broadsides  were  fired  from  more  than  a 
single  deck,  the  lower  ones  took  enemy  craft  between 
wind  and  water  very  ni?ely.  In  the  English  navy  the 
portholes  had  been  cut  so  as  to  let  the  guns  be  policed 
with  considerable  freed'" 'n,  up  or  down,  right  or  left. 
The  huge  top-hamperiig  'castles'  and  other  soldier- 
engineering  works  on  deck  were  modified  or  got  rid 
of,  while  nuwe  canvas  was  used  and  to  much  better 
purpose. 

The  pinnace  showed  the  same  sort  of  improvement 
during  the  same  period  —  from  Drake's  birth  under 
Henry  VIII  in  1545  to  the  zenith  ot  his  career  as  a  sea- 
dog  in  1588.  This  progenitor  of  the  frigate  and  the 
cruiser  was  itself  descended  from  the  long-boat  of  the 
Norsemen  and  still  used  oars  as  occasion  served.  But 
the  acR-dogs  made  it  primarily  a  sailing  vessel  of  aigr- 
thing  up  to  a  hundred  tons  and  generally  aytngmg 
ove.-  fifty.  A  smart  pinnace,  with  its  long,  low,  dean- 
rim  hull,  if  well  handled  under  its  Elizabethan  fighting 
canvas  of  foresul  and  main  topsail,  could  jAay  round 


APPENDIX 


8S7 


a  Spanish  galleasse  or  absurdly  caatled  falleon  like  a 
lancer  on  u  well-trained  charger  round  a  musketeer 
astraddle  on  a  cart  horse. '  Henry's  pinnaces  still  had 
lateen  saiii  cofHed  frmn  Italian  models.  Elisabeth's 

had  square  sails  prophetic  of  the  frigate's.  Henry's 
had  one  or  a  very  few  small  guns.  Elizabeth's  had  as 
many  as  sixteen,  some  of  medium  size,  in  a  hundred- 
tonner. 

The  'mosquito'  deet  of  Henry's  time  was  represented 
by  'row-barges'  of  his  own  invention.  Now  that  the 
pinnace  was  growing  in  size  and  sail  power,  while 
shedding  half  its  oars,  some  new  small  rowing  craft 
was  wanted,  during  that  period  <rf  gropii.g  transition, 
to  act  as  a  tender  or  to  do  'mosquito'  work  in  action. 
The  mere  fact  that  Henry  VIII  placed  no  dependence 
<m  oars  except  for  this  smallest  type  shows  how  far 
he  had  got  on  the  road  towards  the  broadside-sailillg- 
ship  fleet.  On  the  16th  of  .July.  1541.  the  Spanish  Naval 
Attach^  (as  we  should  call  him  now)  reported  to  Charles 
V  that  Henry  had  begun  'to  have  new  oared  vessds 
built  after  his  own  design.'  Four  years  later  these 
same  'row-barges'  —  long,  light,  and  very  handy  — 
hung  round  the  stems  of  the  retreating  Italian  galleys 
m  Uie  French  fleet  to  very  good  purpose,  plying  them 
with  hom-ekuen  and  the  two  broadside  guns,  tiU 

»  Fuller  in  his  Worihiet  (160«)  wrilea: 

'Maoy  were  the  wit-combaU  betwixt  him  IShakeqmue]  and 
Bai  loMQii.  which  two  I  behdd  Kke  •  Spuiuh  great  galleoa  cad  aa 

English  man-of-war:  Master  Jonson  (like  the  former)  was  built  far 
higher  in  learning,  solid  but  slow  in  liis  performances.  Shakespeare, 
with  the  English  man-of-war,  lesaer  in  bulk,  but  K^itar  ia  nffii^ 
could  turn  with  all  tides,  tack  about,  and  take  advaatagi  of  dl  wiada 
by  the  quidmeM  of  hia  wit  and  invention.' 


238 


APPENDIX 


Strozzi,  the  Italian  galley-admiral,  turned  back  on  them 
in  fury,  only  to  see  them  slip  away  in  perfect  order  and 
with  complete  immunity. 

By  the  time  of  the  Armada  the  mosquito  fleet  had 
outgrown  these  little  rowing  craft  and  had  become 
more  oceanic.  But  names,  types,  and  the  evolution 
of  one  type  from  another,  with  the  applicstion  of  the 
same  name  to  changed  and  changing  types,  all  tend 
to  confusion  unless  the  subject  is  followed  in  such  detail 
as  is  impossible  here. 

The  fleets  of  Henry  VIII  and  of  Elizabeth  did  far 
more  to  improve  both  the  theory  and  practice  of  naval 
gunnery  than  all  the  fleets  in  the  world  did  from  the 
death  of  Drake  to  the  adoption  of  rifled  ordnance 
within  the  memory  of  living  men.  Henry's  textbodc 
oi  artillery,  republished  in  1^8,  the  year  of  the  Armada, 
contains  very  practical  diagrams  for  finding  the  range 
at  sea  by  means  of  the  gunner's  half  circle  —  yet 
we  now  think  range-finding  a  very  modem  thing 
indeed.  There  are  also  fuU  directions  for  making 
common  and  even  something  like  shrapnel  shells, 
'star  shells'  to  light  up  the  enemy  at  night,  armor- 
INodng  arrows  shot  oat  of  muskets,  'wiM-fire'  grenades, 
and  many  other  ultra-modern  devices. 

Henry  established  Woolwi<  h  Dockyard,  second  to 
none  both  then  and  now,  as  well  as  Trinity  House, 
which  presently  began  to  undertake  the  duties  it  ftiU 
disdiarges  by  supervising  all  aids  to  navigation  round 
the  British  Isles.  The  use  of  quadrants,  telescopes, 
and  maps  on  Mercator's  projection  all  began  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  as  did  many  other  invoititAs, 
adt^tions,  handy  wrinkles,  and  vital  diaiigei  in 


APPENDIX 


strategy  and  tactics.  Taken  to^«ther,  these  improve- 
ments may  well  make  us  of  the  twentieth  century  wonder 
whether  we  are  so  very  much  superior  to  the  comrades 
of  Heoiy,  Elizabeth,  Shakespeare,  Bacon,  Bakigh, 
and  Drake. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


A  COMPLETE  biMiography  concerned  with  the  first 
century  of  Anglo- American  aflFairs  (1496-1596)  would 
more  than  fill  the  present  volume.  But  really  infor- 
matory  books  mbout  the  sea-dogs  proper  are  veiy 
few  indeed,  ^yie  good  books  of  any  kind  are  none  too 
common. 

Taking  this  first  century  as  a  whole,  the  general 
Nader  cannot  do  better  than  look  up  the  third  volume 

«f  Justin  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
America  (1884)  and  the  first  v»)lume  of  Vvery's  History 
of  the  United  States  and  its  People  (1904).  Both  give 
elaborate  references  to  documents  and  books,  but 
nuitJher  professes  to  be  at  all  ex{)ert  ui  naval  or  nautical 
matters,  and  a  good  deal  has  bet-    written  since. 

The  Cabots.  Cabot  literatuse  is  full  of  conjecture 
and  controversy.  G.  P.  Wnsh^p's  Cabt^  BUdiograpfu/ 
(1900)  is  a  good  guide  to  all  but  -wcent  works.  NichoUs' 
Remarhihle  Life  r/  Scbastiaji  ahot  (1869)  sho^vs  more 
zeal  than  di^ietion.  HarrLisc  s  John  C(d>ot  and  his  /ton 
Sebmtian  (1896)  arranges  tt?  documeats  in  scholarly 
order  but  draws  coaclusioBs  betrayn^  a  wonderful 
iijiu  rance  of  the  coast.  >n  the  whole.  Dr.  S.  E. 
iMwsou  s  very  careful  moasigraphs  id  the  Tranmctions 
oftheBayal  Society  of  Camda  (1894,  1896,  1897)  are 
tiie  faapfnest  Umd  td  schoinskip  ami  local  knowM^. 


948         BIBUOGaAPHICAL  NOTE 


Neither  the  Cabots  n»)r  their  crews  appear  to  have 
written  a  word  about  their  adventures  and  diacoverieH. 
Consequently  the  shifting  threads  of  hearsay  evidence 
soon  became  ineztricaUy  tangled.  Biggar's  Pnewton 
of  Cartier  is  an  abk  and  accurate  work. 

EuzAnETH.  Turning  to  the  patriot  queen  who  had 
to  steer  England  through  so  many  storms  and  tortuoui 
channeli,  we  could  find  no  better  abort  guide  to  ber 
political  career  than  Beesley's  volume  about  ber  in 
'Twelve  English  Statesmen.'  But  the  best  all-round 
biography  is  Queen  Elizabeth  by  Mandell  Creighton. 
who  also  wrote  an  excellent  epitonoe,  called  Ths  Ag«  qf 
Elizabeth,  for  the  '  Epochs  of  Modern  History."  Shake- 
speare's England,  published  in  1916  by  the  Oxford 
University  Press,  is  quite  encyclopaedic  in  its  range. 

Life  Afloat.  The  general  evolution  of  wooden 
.sailing  craft  may  be  traced  out  in  Part  I  of  Sir  George 
Holmes's  convenient  little  treatise  on  Ancient  and 
Modem  Ships.  There  is  no  nautical  dictionary  devoted 
to  Elizabethan  times.  But  a  good  cteal  can  be  picked 
up  from  the  two  handy  modem  glossaries  of  Dana  and 
Admiral  Smyth,  the  first  Imng  an  American  author, 
the  second  a  British  one.  Smyth's  Sailor's  Word  Book 
has  no  alternative  title.  But  Dana's  Seaman's  Friend 
is  known  in  England  under  the  name  of  The  Seaman's 
Manual.  Tcchnicaliticii  change  so  much  more  slowly 
afloat  than  ashore  that  even  the  ultra-modern  editions 
of  Paasch's  magnificent  polyglot  dictionary.  From  Ked 
to  Truck,  still  contain  many  nautical  terms  which  wiD 
help  the  reader  out  of  some  of  his  difficulties. 

The  life  of  the  sea-dogs,  gentlemen-adventurers, 
and  merchant-adventuren  should  be  sttMiwd  in  Hak- 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  US 


luyt's  collection  of  Prirdpal  Navigaiiona,  Voiagea, 
Trqffiquea,  and  Diacoverien;  though  many  of  his  original 
authon  were  landsmen  while  a  few  were  civilians  as 
well.  This  Elizabethan  Odyssey,  the  great  prose  epic 
of  the  English  race,  was  first  published  in  a  single 
solemn  folio  the  year  after  the  Armada  —  1589.  In 
the  nmetftenth  century  the  Hakluyt  Society  reprinted 
and  edited  these  NatigaHom  and  many  nmilar  works, 
though  not  without  employing  some  editors  who  had 
no  knowledge  of  the  Navy  or  the  sea.  In  1893  E.  J. 
Payne  brrjught  out  a  much  handier  edition  of  the 
Voyages  of  the  Elizabethan  Seamen  to  America  which 
gives  the  very  parts  of  Hakluyt  we  want  for  our  present 
purpose,  and  gives  them  with  a  running  accompani- 
ment of  pithy  introductions  and  apporite  footnotes. 
Nearly  all  historians  are  both  landsmen  ard  civilians 
whose  sins  of  omission  and  ^onimi:  ion  ax*'  generally 
at  their  worst  in  naval  and  uai  f  .cnl  •  mts.  But  James 
Anthony  Froude,  whatever  his  otii-r  faults  may  be, 
did  know  something  of  life  afloat,  and  his  Englieh 
Seamen  in  the  Sixteenth  Century,  desfHte  its  ultra- 
Protestant  tone,  is  well  worth  reading. 

Hawkins.  The  Hawkina  Voyagea,  published  by 
the  Hakluyt  Sodety,  give  the  best  odkction  of  original 
accounts.  They  deal  with  three  generations  of  this 
famous  family  and  are  prefaced  by  a  good  introduction. 
A  Sea-Dog  of  Devon,  by  R.  A.  J.  Walling  (1907)  is  the 
best  recent  Uogn^>hy  of  Sir  John  Hawkins. 

Drake.  Politics,  policy,  trade,  and  colonization 
were  all  dependent  on  sea  power;  and  just  as  the 
English  Navy  was  by  far  the  most  important  factor  in 
solving  tiie  momentous  New-World  problems  of  that 


944  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


awakening  age,  so  Drake  waa  by  far  the  moiit  important 
factor  in  the  English  Navy.  The  Worlde  Encompat$«d 
by  Sir  Franeit  Drah$  and  Sir  Frtmei$  Drak$  ki$  Voyage, 
1596,  are  two  of  tlie  volumei  edited  by  the  Hakluyt 

St)ciely.  But  these  contemporary  accounts  of  hia 
famous  fights  and  voyages  do  not  bring  out  the  supreme 
■significance  erf  hit  influence  aa  an  admiral,  more  es- 
pecially in  connection  with  the  Spanish  Annada.  It 

must  always  l)e  a  matter  of  keen,  though  unavailing, 
regret  that  Admiral  Malian,  the  great  American 
expositor  <rf  sea  power,  begun  with  the  seventeenth, 
not  the  tizteenth,  century.  But  what  Mahan  left 
undone  was  afterwards  done  to  admiration  by  Julian 
Corbelt,  Lecturer  in  History  to  the  (British)  Naval 
War  College,  whose  Drake  and  the  Tudor  Navy  (1912) 
is  absolutely  indispensable  to  any  one  w1m>  wishes  to 
understand  how  England  won  her  footing  in  America 
despite  all  that  Spain  could  do  to  Jitop  her.  Corbett's 
Drake  (1890)  in  the  '  English  Men  of  Action '  series  is  an 
excellent  qMtome.  But  the  larger  book  is  very  much 
the  better.  Many  illuminative  documents  on  The 
Defeat  of  the  Spanuth  Armada  were  edite«l  in  1894  by 
Corbett's  predecessor.  Sir  John  Laughton.  The  only 
other  work  that  need  be  consulted  is  the  first  volume  ot 
The  Royal  Nary:  a  History,  edited  by  Sir  \raiiam  Laird 
Clowes  (1897).  This  is  not  so  good  jin  authority  as 
Corbett;  but  it  contains  many  details  which  help  to 
round  the  story  out,  besides  a  wealth  of  illustration. 

Raleigh.  Gilbert,  Cavendish.  Raleigh,  and  the 
other  gentlemen-adventurers,  were  soldiers,  not  sailors; 
and  if  they  had  gone  afloat  two  centuries  later  they 
would  have  fought  at  the  head  of  marines,  not  ci  blue- 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  §45 

jackeU;  so  their  lives  Mong  to  a  different  kind  of 
biognphy  from  that  concerned  with  Hawkins,  Frobisher, 
•nd  Drdw.  Edwuds'a  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (1868) 
contains  all  the  most  interesting  letters  and  is  «com- 
petent  work  of  its  own  kind.  Oldys*  edition  of  Raleigh'a 
Works  still  holds  the  field  though  its  eight  volumes  were 
published  BO  long  ago  as  18«0.  Raleigh's  Ditcomy  q( 
Guiana  is  the  favorite  for  reprinting.  The  Hakluyt 
Society  has  produced  an  elalxirate  edition  (1847)  while 
a  very  cheap  and  handy  one  has  been  published  in 
Cassell's  National  Libraiy.  W.  G.  Gosling's  Life  of 
Sir  Humpkry  Gilbert  (1011)  is  the  best  Kcent  work  of 
its  kind. 

The  likeliest  of  all  the  Hakluyt  Society's  volumes,  so 
far  as  its  title  is  concerned,  is  one  which  has  hardly  any 
direct  hearing  on  tli<  subject  of  our  book.    Yet  the 
reader  who  is  disappointed  by  the  text  of  Divere 
Voyages  to  Amenca  because  it  is  not  devoted  to  Eliza- 
bethan sea-dogs  wiU  be  richly  rewarded  by  the  notes 
on  pages  116-141.   These  quaint  bits  of  information 
and  advice  were  intended  for  quite  another  purpose. 
But  their  transcriber's  faith  in  their  wider  applicability 
ia  fuUy  jusUfied.   Here  is  the  exact  original  heading 
under  which  they  first  apptarwl:  Notee  in  Writing 
besides  More  Privie  by  Mouth  that  were  given  by  a  Gentle- 
man, Anno  1580,  to  M.  Arthure  Pette  and  to  M.  Charles 
Jaekman,  sent  by  the  MarehmUa  of  the  Muscovie  Com- 
panie  for  the  ducouerie  of  the  northeaal  etraf^,  not  00- 
together  mfit  for  some  other  enterprieea  (jf  dieeouerie, 
hereafter  to  bee  taken  in  hande. 

See  also  in  rA«  Encydojxedia  Briiannica,  llth  Ed 
the  vtKleson  Bewry  VI 1 1,  Elizabeth,  Drake,  Raleigh,  etc* 


MICROCOPY  RESOIUTION  TEST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


A 


/1PPLIED  INA^GE 


1653  East  Main  Street 
Rochester.  New  York  1*609 
(716)  482  -  0300  -  Phone 
(716)  28E,  -  59B9  -  Fox 


INDEX 


Alva,  Governor  of  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  98  et  »eq. 

Amadas,  in  America  (1584),  151. 
210 

America;  an  obstacle  to  the  cir- 
cumnavigation of  the  world, 
11;  as  a  reputed  source  of 
gold  and  silver,  65 

Angd,  The.  ship,  86 

Anton,  Senor  Juan  de,  133 

Antonio^  Dou.  pretender  to  the 
throne  of  Portugal,  164;  and 
the  English  at  Lisbon.  194 

Antwerp,  98.  99.  100 

Armada,  145.  150,  153,  I  ">6,  164, 
165.  172,  191,  214 

Aviles,  Don  Pedro  Menendez  de, 
86 

Azores,  150,  169,  194 

Baber,  Sultan  in  the  Moluccas, 
141 

Bacon.  Francis,  Lord.  62,  210 
Balboft  crosMs  bUunoa  of  PUia- 

ma  (1513),  19 
Barlow,  in  America  (lfi84).  151, 

210 

Baakerville,  Sir  Thomaa,  C24, 

227  et  teq. 
Bazan,  Don  Alonzo  de.  197,  200 
Bible,  authorized  version  of.  40, 

216 

'  Bond  of  Association. '  152 
Bnuil.  voyage  (rf  Hawkins  to, 
8S-4 

Bristol,  Cabot  settles  in.  S 
Buriei^  Lwd.  87, 11«,  144. 156, 
182, 167. 206 


Cabot,  John,  transfers  allegiance 
from  Genoa  to  Venice  (14V6), 
1;  Cabottagio.  2;  reaches 
Cape  Breton  (1497),  7;  returns 
to  Bristol,  7;  receives  a  present 
of  £10.  from  Henry  VII,  8; 
disappears  at  sea  (1498), 
8-9,  14;  believes  America 
the  eastern  limit  of  the  Old 
World,  11;  luUioffraphy, 
241 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  second  son  of 
John.  9;  takes  command  of  ex- 
pedition to  America.  9;  leaves 
men  to  explore  Newfoundland, 
9;  coasts  Greenland,  12;  ex- 
plores Atlantic  Coast,  12; 
enters  service  of  Ferdinand  of 
Spain  as  'Captain  of  the 
Sea,'  15;  Charles  V  makes 
him  'Chief  Pilot  and  Exami- 
ner of  Pilots,'  15;  determines 
longitude  of  Moluccaib  15; 
voyage  to  South  America.  15; 
nudces  a  map  of  the  world. 
15;  leaves  Spain  for  England 
(1548).  16;  receives  pension 
from  Edward  VI,  16;  feasts 
at  Gravesend  with  the  Senk- 
tkrift,  16-17;  Governor  of 
Muscovy  Company,  Ifli,  SI; 
sailmg  of  the  SetMtrift,  82; 
bibliography,  241 

Cadiz,  165  et  teq. 

Califwnia.  187,  188,  212 

Canaries,  157,  220 

Cape  Bretmi,  Cabot  leacbes 
(1497),  7 


247 


248 


INDEX 


Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Vaaco  da 

Gama  sails  around.  18 
Cape  St.  Vincent,  Drake  {dans 

to  capture.  167 
Caribs,  80,  158 
CarleUl.  154, 1S6. 157, 160 
Cartagena,  88,  lOS  «  mj^  1A6. 

150 

Cartier,  Jacques,  second  T<wage 
(1535),  12;  discovers  St  Law- 
rence, 71 

Cathay,  Sebastian  Cabotsearches 
for  passage  to.  11;  Sir  Hugh 
Willoughby  tries  to  find 
Northeast  passage  to,  SO 

Cavendish,  Thomas.  212 

Cecil.  Sir  Robert,  206 

Charles  V  of  Spain,  maritime 
rival  of  Henry  VIII,  22-25; 
hi*;  dominions,  23;  feud  with 
France,  23-24;  hostile  to 
England,  29;  Span:sh  dominion, 
71;  father  of  Don  John  of 
Austria,  117 

Chesapeake  Bay,  220 

Cockeram,  Martin,  34 

Coligny.  Admiral,  207 

Columbus,  Christopher,  citizen 
of  Genoa,  1-2;  visit  to  Iceland, 
3;  fame  eclipses  that  of  the 
Cabots,  13;  reasons  for  his 
significance,  13;  400th  anni- 
versary of  his  discovery,  14; 
replica  of  the  Santa  Maria, 
235 

Comjdaynt  of  Scotland.  The.  42 

Cordial  Advice,  40 

Corunna.  178,  192 

Cosa,  Juan  de  la,  makes  first 

dated  (1500)  map  of  America, 

14 

Croatoan  Island,  213  rf  >eq. 
CrowndaJe,  Dnke's  birthplace, 

95 

Cumberland,  Earl  of,  197 
Cuttyhunk  Island,  216 

Dare,  Virginia,  215 
Ddigkt,  The.  ship,  SOO 


De  Soto,  19,  81 

Doughty,  Thomaa,       HO,  ItS 

et  teg.,  127 
Dragon,  The,  ship,  101 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  bom  the 
same  vear  as  modem  sea-power 
(1545),  38;  on  the  Minion. 
M;  Son  ot  Edmund  Drake, 
05;  boyhood,  06  H  ttq.;  as 
lieutenant,  on  eacwt  to  wod- 
fleet,  100;  marries  Mary  New- 
man. 100;  sails  on  Nombre  de 
Dios  expedition,  101  tt  teq.; 
Drake  and  Nombre  de  Dios, 
104;  sees  the  PMific,  110; 
attacks  a  Spanish  treasure 
train,  111  et  teq.;  returns  to 
England   (1573).   114;  gues 
to  Ireland,  115;  recalled  for 
consultation.    118;  audience 
with  the  Queen.  119;  plans  to 
raid  the    Pacific,  119;  sails 
ostensibly    for    Egypt,  120; 
his  Famous   Voyage  (1577), 
121 ;  has  trouble  with  Doughty, 
124;  whom  he  puts  to  death, 
125;  winters  in  Patagonia,  125; 
overcomes  disaffection  of  his 
men,  126;  sails  through  Straits 
of    Magellan,    128;  enters 
Pacific,  128;  takes  the  Grand 
Captain  of  the  South,  129; 
scours  the  Pacific  taking  prizes, 
130;  at  Lima,  130;  pursues 
Spanish  treasure  ship,  131; 
captures  Don  Juan  de  Anton, 
133;  sails  north,  137;  con- 
sidered a  god  by  the  Indians, 
138  et  aeq.;  arrives  at  Moluccas, 
141;  lays  foundation  of  English 
diplomacy  in  Eastern  seas, 
142;  Golden  Hind  aground, 
142;  uncertainty  at  home  as 
to  his  fate,  144;  arrives  at 
Plymouth,  145;  knighted  by 
Elizabeth,  148;  plans  a  raid 
on  New  Spain,  151;  prepares 
for  Indies  voyage  of  1585, 153; 
caUs  at  Vigo,  155;  plans  a 


INDEX 


249 


Drake,  Sir  Fnaat—Cmtinued 
raid  on  New  Spain,  156; 
captures  Santiago  and  San 
Domingo,  157;  takes  Carta- 
gena. 159;  calls  at  Roanoke, 
162;  arrives  at  Plymouth, 
(1580),  162;  expedition  to 
Cadiz,  165;  arrests  Borough, 
167;  conquers  Sa^s  CasUe, 
107;  takes  Spanish  treasure 
ship,  169;  defeats  the  Armada, 
172-191;  undertakes  Lisbon 
expedition  (1589),  192;  his 
acnieyement,  201;  in  disfavor, 
223;  in  unhappy  combination 
with  Hawkins.  224;  West 
Indies  voyage,  225;  seizes 
La  Hacha,  Santa  Marta,  and 
Nombre  de  Dios.  227;  his 
last  days,  228;  his  death,  229; 
bibliography,  24S-4 

Drake,  Edmund,  95 

Drake.  Jack,  121, 1S2 

Drake'!  Bay,  188 

East  India  Company,  8S,  171, 
215 

Edward  VI.  29,  50 

F  »beth.  the  England  of,  48 
et  teg.;  early  life,  50;  and 
Mary,  51 ;  and  Anne  of  Cleves. 
51;  ascends  the  throne,  52; 
difficulty  of  her  position.  66; 
and  finance.  55;  her  court,  68; 
her  love  of  luxury,  68-69; 
commandeers  Spanish  gold. 99; 
deposed  by  Pope,  100;  tortu- 
ous Spanish  policy,  117;  con- 
sults Drake,  119;  rceives 
Drake  on  his  return.  146; 
banquets  on  the  Golden  Hind, 
148;  knighU  Drake.  148; 
Babington  Plot  again,  163; 
beheads  Mary  Queen  of  Scots, 
165;  the  Armada,  176  et 
uq.;  the  Lisbon  expedition. 
192;  dies,  216;  lublMgraphy. 
242 

Etbubdh,  The,  ship,  Itl 


Essex,  Earl  of,  116,  HS 

Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  234 
Fleming.  Captain,  1'  \  190 
Fletcher.  Chaplain.  125.  128.  143 
Fletcher  of  Rye.  discovers  the  art 

of  tacking.  26;  as  a  shipwright, 

233 

Florida.  81,  82.  162 

Francis  I.  of  France,  maritime 

rival  of  Henry  VIII,  22,  24. 

71 

Frobisher.  Martin.  120. 154. 160, 
220 

Fuller,  Thomas,  author  of  Tha 
WortUu     EnfUmd,  101,  887 

Gamboa,  Don  Pedro  Sanniento 

de,  135 

Genoa,  the  home  of  Cabot  and 

Columbus.  2 
George  Noble.  The,  ship,  198 
Gilbert.  Sir  Humphrey,  208-210 
Gilbert,  Raleigh.  219 
God  Save  the  KingI  95 
Golden  Hind,  The,  ship,  121, 127, 

129,  132  et  teq.,  136.  141,  142, 

144.  145,  147.  154,  179 
Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinando.  217 
Gosnold.  Bartholomew.  216 
Grand  Captain  of  the  South,  The, 

ship.  129 
Gravelines,  battle  at,  32,  190 
Great  Harry,  The,  ship,  234 
Grenville,  Sir  Richuid,  195  et 

teq.,  220 
Gresham.  Sir  Thomas,  60 

Hakluyt't  Voyaget,  33 
Hakluyt  Society,  242  et  Mq. 
Harriot.  Thomas,  212 
Harrison's  detcripticm  of  Esg^ 

Uuid.  60-70 
Hatton,  Sir  Chriatopber,  127, 

146 

Hawkins,  Sir  John,  ton  of  THI- 
liam  Hawkins,  34;  enters  slave 
trade  with  New  Spain  (1562), 
74;  takes  800  aiavw  at  Sierra 


INDEX 


HawkliM.  Sit  Johnn-Cmitinuid 
Leon*.  75:  second  expedition 
(1A04).  75;  issues  sailing  or- 
oen,  78;  John  Sparke's  ac- 
count, 77;  at  Teneriffe,  77; 
meeU  Peter  de  Ponte,  78; 
Arbol  Santo  tree,  78;  takes 
many  Sapies.  79;  at  Sambula, 
79;  laland  of  the  Cannibals. 
80;  makes  for  Florida.  80; 
finda  French  aettlement,  82 
a  tea.:  aells  the  Tiger,  85;  nils 
north  to  Newfoundland.  85; 
arrives  at  Fkdstow,  Cornwall 
(1565),  85;  a  favorite  at  court. 
85;  watched  by  Spain.  86. 
seta  out  on  third  voyage  (1567), 
80;  begins  the  sea-dog  fighting 
with  Spain,  88;  Drake  joins 
Uw  expedition,  80;  disasters, 
87;  crosses  from  Africa  to 
West  Indies,  88;  clashes  with 
Spadards  at  Bio  de  la  Hacha, 
88;  at  Cartagena,  89;  at  St. 
John  de  Ulua.  89;  fight  with 
the  Spaniards.  90  et  eeq.; 
puled  from  Dnke  in  a  stwm, 
OS;  leaves  part  of  his  men 
ashore,  98;  voyage  ends  in 
disaster,  94;  strikes  another 
Uow  at  Spam  (1595).  223; 
unhappily    combined  with 
Drake.  224;  sails  for  New 
Spain  226;  dies,  M8;  Ubli- 
ography,  24S 

Hawkins,  Sir  Riciiard,  grandson 
of  William  Hawkins.  35 

Hawkins,  William,  story  of,  in 
Hakluyt  Voyage;  S3  et  teq.; 
father  of  Sir  John  Hawkins. 
34;  grandfather  of  Sr  Bidurd 
Hawkins,  35,  and  of  the 
second  William  Hawkins,  85 

Hawkins,  William,  the  Second, 
grandson  of  William  Hawkins, 
35 

Henry  IV  of  France,  223 
Henry  VII,  Cabot  enters  ser- 
vice of,  3;  refuses  to  patronise 


Colunbus.  4;  gives 
to  the  Jabots,  4-6 
Henry  VIII,  the  monarch  of  the 
sea,  20;  establishes  a  modem 
fleet  and  the  o£5ce  of  the 
Admiralty,  21;  a  patron  of 
sailors.  22-  menaced  by  Scot- 
land. France,  and  Spain.  85; 
defies  the  Pope.  25;  defies 
Francis  I.  26;  birth  of  modem 
sea-power  (1545).  28;  and  the 
voyage  of  Hawkins.  SS-34;  as 
a  patron  of  the  Navy.  i88 
etseq. 

Uenry  Grace  h  Ditu,  The,  ship. 

234 

Honduras,  158.  828 

Hore,  his  voyage  to  America, 

33  ei  teq. 
Ilortop,  Job.  94 

Howard  of  EflSne,ham.  Lord,  SI, 

176,  189,  197 
Hudson  Strait,  Sebastian  Cabot 

misses,  12 

India,  Sebastian  Cabot  searches 

for  passage  to,  11 
Ingram.  David.  94 
Inquisition,  Spanish,  89,  7S 
Ireland,  147,  191 

Jackman,  122 

James  I  of  England.  216,  818 
Jeffoys,  Thomas,  66 
Jetut,  The,  ship.  88,  80,  01  e( 
eeq. 

Jeetu  cf  Lubeeh,  The,  ship,  75, 
76 

JudiA.  The,  skip,  88,  92  «<  w;.. 
OS 

Knollys,  154 

La  DmgoiUea,  by  Lope  de  Vega. 
157 

La  Hacha,  156,  227 
Lane.  Balph,  188, 106.  818 
La  Rodidle,  100 
Laudcmnike^  Bcni.  de,  88  wg. 


INDEX 


951 


 Jt,  Eari.  of.  14«,  184,  176 

Lcputo,  117,  lU 

Lima,  IM,  lU.  144 

linM  of  ToRca  V«drms.  194 

Liaboa,  144,  168.  192,  223  et  tea. 

UaydX  W-«l 

Loodoonwicluuita.  144. 146, 171. 
118 

Lope  de  Vegiw  U7 
Madrid.  86, 172 

HageUaD,  Strait  of,  IM^  lt7. 128 
BfaBoa.  221,  288 

Juan  de  la  Coaa'a  earliest 

dated  (lAOO)  map  of  America. 

14;  of  worid  by  Sebastian 

Cabot  (1544),  15;  of  America 

by  Thomaa  Jefferys,  66 
Marigold.  Th^  ship,  121,  126, 

188,129 
Martin,  Don,  134,  153 
Mary.  Queen  of  Scots,  31.  50 

4  teq..  117,  121,  149,  152, 

168,  lei.  216 
Matthew,  The,  ship,  7 
Medina  Sidonia,  Duke  of.  175 
Mendosa,  119 
Menendez,  115,  150 
Middleton.  Captain,  197 
Minion,  The,  ship,  90,91  tt  teq. 
Monopoly,  58.  66 
Moore.  Tom,  129.  154.  161 
Mosquito,  Lopes  de,  141 
Mountains  of  fti^t  Stoaeik  86, 

221,222 
Muioovy  CooqNUiy,  16^  81 

Navigation,  encouraged  by  Henry 
VIII.  21,  25,  27;  art  of  tacking 
discovered.  26;  birth  of  modern 
sea-pvwer,  28;  sea-songs,  37 
et  teq.;  nauti<»l  terms,  42  et 
teq.;  P^tte  and  Jackman's 
advice  to  traders,  122-123 
ftn.;  Francisco  de  Zarate's 
accotmt  of  Drake's  Golden 
Hind.  136-li?7;  appendix;  note 
on  Tudor  shippings  881-839; 
bibliography,  248 


New  Albion.  136. 140 
Newfouodiud  fiaheriei^  Bmoo 

on,  62 
New  France.  72,  205 
Nombre  de  Dios,  101  el  teq.,  12U, 

135,  156.  227 
Norreys,  Sir  John,  176, 193 
Northwest  Pnmm,  IM  187 


Oxenliaiii.  Joba,  105^  1O0^11«,144 

Pacific  Ocean,  taken  possession 

of   by    Balboa    (1513).  19; 

Drake  enters.  128  et  teq. 
Panama.  19.  103,  108,  120.  132, 

135.  156.  227 
Parma.  172  et  teq.,  189 
Pascha,  The,  ihip^  101, 100^  100. 

114 

Pedro  de  Valdes.  Don,  188 

Pelican.  The.  ship,  121,  127 

Philip  of  Spain,  marries  Queen 
Mary,  31;  protests  against 
Drake's  actions,  87;  plans  to 
seise  Scilly  Isles,  115;  soldi  rs 
sack  Antwerp,  116;  seizes 
Portugal,  144;  prepares  a 
fleet,  150;  Paris  plot  with 
Mary.  150;  seizes  English 
merchant  fleet.  152;  duped 
by  Hawkins.  153;  his  credit 
low.  163;  resumes  mobiliza- 
tion. 172;  prepares  the  Armada. 
174  et  teq. 

Phihppines.  Vasco  da  Gama 
reaches.  19;  Drake  aaila  to,  141 

Pines,  Isl3  of.  103 

Plymouth.  96.  98.  114,  14A, 
162.  178-180,  217,  225 

Plymou    Company,  218 

Pole  of  Plimmouth,  The,  ship.  33 

Ponte.  Peter  de,  78 

Popham,  George.  219 

Porto  Rico,  225,  226 

Potosi.  28,  73.  95.  130 

Primrote,  The,  ship.  158 

Pring.  Martin,  217 

Puerto  Bello.  229 

Purchaa^  Samuel,  203 


9H 


INDEX 


lUlegh.  City  of,  b  Yirginis.  813 
RaUigk.  The.  ihip.  i09 
Baleigh.  Sir  Wdter.  IM.  205- 

ttS:  bibliography.  tH-US 
num.  103,  lo«i 

Rnengt,  The,  ihip,  188.  192-204 
Ribaut,  Jean.  82 
BomwIm  Uud.  192.  810  H 
Mg. 

Sicraa  CMtle.  167 
St  AoguMinc  80, 188 
8u  Doudng^.  IM,  m.  181 
San  Ftlipt,/thK,  ihip,  197  «<  w?. 
Su  FnndMo,  137.  138 
Su  Juu  de  Ulua.  89.  98.  90. 
158 

Smiia  Anna,  The,  ship,  818 
Santa  Cnii,  IM.  178  «<  nq. 
Santa  Blarta.  IM,  887 
SdUy  Iilei.  114. 115, 15S 
Serchlhrift.  The.  ibip.  18-17.  82 
Shipping,  note  on  Tudor,  831- 
8n 

adm     V  r  Philip,  155,  104.  195 

Slave  xrade.  74  tf  tq. 

Salomon,  The.  ship.  70 

Somerset.  89-30.  53.  80 

Southampton,  Earl  ol,  817 

^Mun.  n^ta  of  diacovery,  6 
Spaniah  Inouintion,  89.  73 
breach   witn  ^  England,  72 
Spanish  gold  in  London,  73 
Spaniarda  in  Florida.  81-82. 
the  '^iMiidi  Fury'  of  1570. 
118;  Drake  dipt  the  wings 
of  Spain.  149-171;  Drake  and 
the  Spanish  Armada.  172-101; 
Lisbon  enedition.  198  et  leq.; 
the  last  ni^t  o(  the  Btmtge, 
197  d  Ma. 

^wrkcb  Joiuu'Ut  aooount  of  Sir 


John   nawkins's  vograge  to 

Florida,  77  et  leq. 
Spitfire.  The,  ship.  132 
Squirrel,  The,  ship,  210 
Swallow,  The.  ship.  80 
■Swan.  The,  ship,  101,  100,  109. 

121. 188 

Teneriffe,  77-78 
Ternate.  Island  of,  141, 142 
T«tu,  Capt.  112  et  leq. 
Throgmorton,  Elizabeth.  220 
Tiger,  The.  ship.  60.  85,  154 
Torres  Vedras,  Lines  of.  194 

Vasco  da  Gama  finds  sea  route 

to  India  (1408),  18 
Venice,  importance  in  trade.  2; 

Cabot  becomes  a  citiaen  oif.  8 
Venta  Cms.  Ill 
Vera  Crus.  89 
Verrasano.  71 

Virginia.  62.  151.  190,  805.  810. 
219 

Walsingham.  Sir  Francis,  118, 
146 

West  Indies.  84,  157.  iOi,  208;. 

210,  225  H  tea. 
Westward  fTo  /  Kingsley's,  105 
Weymouth,  George,  218 
White.  John.  812  a  ng. 
William  and  John,  The,  ship.  88 
William  of  Orange,  152, 207. 
Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh,  tries  to 
•      'A  Nforthwest  Fkoage.  80; 
'   .  'ai^and.  90 
.  158.  838 
I    I      .e<  cfEngUmd,  The.  by 
j     A  nomas  Fuller.  101.  837 

Zarste^  Don  Raacuco  de,  136 


